Sensex ends at 17,000 for 1st time since Jan 21; RIL up 4 per cent

The benchmark Sensex closed above an important psychological 17,000 mark for the first time since January 21, 2010. Fresh cash based buying in heavyweights and positive developments for Greece bailout helped the Sensex to touch this level in last minutes of trade. The index rallied nearly 750 points in these three days, especially since Budget day.

Experts believe that the market was driven by cash based buying after breaking an important level on the upside. Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities said it was a fresh buying which has started happening today. "There are two important levels on which the market was little bit apprehensive that it will not cross those levels, today it has crossed them (Sensex above 17000 mark and the Nifty above 5050 level)."

He also said likely possibility of Greece bailout was another trigger today. "The larger part of the confidence has returned among the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) space particularly because the likely possibility of Greece government working on the fiscal restructuring as far as their economy is concerned. So from that particular angle, currency as a whole in the euro segment is probably showing some signs of stability vis-à-vis dollar."

According to Reuters, Greece's cabinet on Wednesday decided to take extra austerity measures totalling 4.8 billion euros (USD 6.49 billion) to ensure it meets key fiscal targets this year, a government source said. The measures include an increase of value-added tax by 2 percentage points to 21% and trimming public sector salary bonuses by 30%, the source said.

Heavyweights played the big role in today's trade; especially Reliance Industries, which was the leader with 4% jump and closed above the Rs 1,000 mark. Among others were NTPC, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Infosys and ITC. Jaiprakash Associates and Tata Power were the top gainers, which surged 6% and 5%, respectively.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,000.01, up 227.45 points or 1.36% and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 1.42% or 71.10 points to settle at 5,088.10. However, the Nifty March future ended at 5 points discount, as per provisional data. Eleven out of 50 stocks on the Nifty finished in red.