Benchmark indices gained after an opinion poll said that BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi will rout the opposition and will emerge as the front-runner in the upcoming elections. The BSE barometer, the BSE Sensex gained 173.47 points or 0.86% at 20,336.82 points, while the NSE?s Nifty ended 47.25 points or 0.79% higher at 6,048.35 points on Friday.
To add to the optimism, the wholesale-price index (WPI) inflation data that came out on Friday was at an eight-month low of 5.05%.
Experts feel the recent rally is on account of positive global and domestic cues. “We are seeing improvement in Chinese macro data as well as domestically, political uncertainty is easing as opinion polls are pointing in the same direction,” said Saurabh Mukherjea, CEO, Institutional Equities, Ambit Capital.
Among sectoral indices, BSE Oil & Gas (1.21%), BSE IT (1.39%) and BSE Metal (0.70%) were the major gainers. Shares of Tata Motors (3.25%), Gail (2.56%) and RIL (1.74%) closed higher on the 30-share Sensex. Shares of Future Retail gained 20% in intra-day after the company reported a net profit of Rs 21.74 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2013. In the year-ago period the company reported net loss of Rs 20.41 crore.
Among the key Asian indices, the Hang Seng (0.60%), KOSPI (0.69%) and Shanghai Composite (0.83%) were trading higher. The Nikkei was down 1.53%.
