Nifty ends above 5000; banks, metals, power lead

The Nifty closed above an important psychological 5,000 mark - for the first time since December 7, 2011, aided by positive global cues. Banks, metals, oil & gas, power and auto stocks led Thursday's rally. The Sensex rose 192.27 points, to close at 16,643.74, supported by index heavyweights ICICI Bank, L&T and Reliance. The Nifty moved up 62.6 points, to end at 5,018.40.

Looking at the positive momentum globally, the market seemed to be closing on a strong note for the third consecutive week tomorrow. Dipan Mehta, Member BSE and NSE would attribute this rally more to the way global markets have performed and the kind of risk coming off.

"It is a risk on trade which has been taking place in the new year and we are clearly the beneficiaries of that particular trend," he said.

Global markets gained on talks that IMF is raising an additional USD 600 billion and better than expected numbers from Goldman Sachs for Q4 too helped the improved sentiment. Asian markets closed with 0.6-1.3% gains. European markets were stable; CAC rose half a percent after France sold 1.58 billion Euro of July 2015 bond at an average yield of 1.51% today.

Back home, the BSE Realty Index outperformed other sectoral indices, rising 3.5%. Metal, Power and Bankex were up 2-3%. Auto, Oil & Gas, Pharma and Capital Goods indices moved up 1-1.4%.

Power stocks were the stars today, especially after top power companies' CEOs met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday for problems (like coal shortage etc) in the power sector. PM formed committee of secretaries on power sector and he set 30-60-90 days targets to push power sector growth. NTPC rallied 4%; Reliance Infrastructure shot up 10% and Tata Power jumped 6%.