Bulls come back

The bulls were back in action on Wednesday, after a day's break, pulling indices up nearly two per cent with good volumes. Investors turned optimistic tracking a rebound in Asian and European markets and covered short positions initiated over the last two sessions. Accumulation of long positions was also seen market, participants said.

"The Nifty convincingly crossed the 5900 mark, where it was facing stiff resistance, without any follow-up selling. The broad-based upmove, led by heavyweights ONGC, ICICI, SBI and Reliance Industries, also boosted sentiment. Today's move indicates a strong positive trend. We could be looking beyond 6000 levels by the end of the week," said Anand Kuchelan, senior analyst - derivatives & strategy at PINC Research.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty ended at 5,940, up 82 points or 1.39 per cent after hitting a high of 5,949.3 and low of 5,859.95.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex closed at 19,738.07, up 208 points or 1.07 per cent. The index touched a high of 19,790.92 and low of 19,560.68.

Top Sensex gainers were ONGC (up 4.29%), Tata Motors (3.95%), State Bank of India (2.85%), Hindalco Industries (2.81%), Cipla (2.46%) and NTPC (2.15%).

However, Tata Steel (down 0.87%), Satyam Computer Services (0.49%), Infosys Technologies (0.7%) and Grasim Industries (0.45%) lagged.

The rally in tier II and III stocks continued for the third straight day with BSE Midcap Index closing 1.67 per cent higher and BSE Smallcap Index up 2.88 per cent.

Ispat Industries (up 24.75%), Zee News (16.36%), Wire & Wireless (13.18%), SRF (12.66%) and Essar Shipping (10%) kept the midcap space buzzing.

Among sectors, BSE Bankex and BSE Oil & Gas Index closed 2.07 per cent and 2.28 per cent higher, respectively.

Market breadth was positive on the BSE with 2,164 gainers and 687 losers. NSE saw 963 gainers against 256 losers, and a turnover of Rs 21280.24.

Nifty December futures ended at 40-point premium to the spot, with open interest of 2.97 crore, which indicates a build up of long positions.

Asian shares also ended higher driving the Nikkei 225 up 0.83 pr cent, Hang Seng up 1.61 per cent and KOSPI up 1.06 per cent.

European markets followed a similar pattern. At the time Indian markets closed, the FTSE gained 1.11 per cent, CAC was up 0.92 per cent and DAX was 0.67 per cent higher.