Sensex climbs on Q2 GDP…Nifty tops 5850

After staging a smart pull back in the previous trading session, the benchmark Indian stock indices extended gains after the second quarter GDP data came in ahead of most estimates.



The rally today was led by the Realty stocks, which were badly battered in the past week in the wake of the bribes-for-loans scandal. The other notable gainers were the Consumer Durables (2%), Power (1.8%) and PSU (1.7%) indices. Even the broader indices participated in the upswing, with the BSE Mid-Cap and the Small-Cap indices rising 1.4% and 1.9%, respectively.

India's economy grew at a much faster pace than anticipated in the second quarter of FY11, resulting in a smart recovery in the stock market and lifting hopes of meeting the Government's annual target of 8.75%. India's economy expanded by an impressive 8.9% in the July to September quarter as against 8.7% in the year-ago period. GDP had expanded by a revised 8.9% in the first quarter of FY11.

"Unlike Monday's session, today the run-up was on the back of an extremely positive market breath which was in a ratio of 3:1. Also, the volume and the turnover were much better than Monday, pointing to a broad-based improvement in sentiment," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The advance in the Indian market came despite weakness in other Asian markets, especially in the Japanese and Chinese indices. Also, the European markets reversed their opening gains to trade flat even as the euro slipped below the 1.30 mark against the US dollar.

The BSE Sensex gained 116 points to close at 19,521 and the NSE Nifty gained 33 points to close at 5,863.