Spectrum auction helps market regain momentum Bulls in ‘pawri’ mode

The stock market moved up for the third consecutive session, gaining over 2 per cent on Wednesday and making investors richer by over Rs 10 lakh crore since the steep, over 3.5 per cent fall last Friday.

This week’s spectrum auction, which fetched the government Rs 77,814 crore, seems to have buoyed market sentiments. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries and rival telecom company Bharti Airtel gained 4.52 per cent and 0.92 per cent, respectively, after they put in majority of the bids in the spectrum sale.

Despite mixed global cues, with the overnight US market closing in the red, the Sensex opened higher and kept the momentum to close with a gain of 1147 points, or 2.28 per cent, at 51,444 points. The Nifty-50 gained 326 points, or 2.19 per cent, to close at 15,245.

The return of foreign investors after last Friday's heavy selling seems to have stabilised the domestic market. Foreign portfolio investors were net buyers of equities worth Rs 2,088.

70 crore on Wednesday after Rs 2,223.16 crore buying on Tuesday. Domestic institutions also turned net buyers on Wednesday by Rs 392.91 crore.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies crossed the Rs 210lakh crore mark for the first time. The BSE Midcap and Small-cap indices gained 1.45 per cent and

1,34 per cent, respectively. "A stellar rally across BFSI & Metals powered indices higher today by 2.3 per cent with the market breadth improving dramatically in afternoon trade. Investors cherrypicked AMCs, HFCs and the day also witnessed keen interest in sugar

stocks which recorded handsome gains" said S. Ranganathan, head of Research, LKP Securities.

Among the sectoral indices BSE Bankex

gained 2.75 per cent, Metal (3.23 per cent), IT (2.01 per cent) and Realty (1.47 per cent) as all sectoral indices barring the Auto Index closed in the green.