Mumbai: Rising for the seventh straight session on Monday, NSE Nifty recaptured the crucial 8,800-mark and closed more than one-month high even as investors looked optimistically to the start of earnings season ahead.
Sentiments remained upbeat following the robust IIP data on the back of strong growth in capital and consumer goods sectors and also expectations of lower inflation.
Global factors too supported the upmove to some extent.
After making a muted start, bourses continued to trade side-ways in the early part of the session in the absence of any fresh triggers as well as modest profit-taking in select counters.
Cautious approach ahead of the release of March CPI data also weighed on trading sentiments.
However, overcoming the initial sluggishness, market gained strength in noon trade with key indices steadily gaining ground and accelerated to the day's highest point on sustained buying activities by funds and retail investors before ending with handsome gains.
On the macro front, country's industrial growth jumped to nine-month high of 5 percent in February on better performance of manufacturing sector and higher offtake of consumer as well as capital goods.
In other Asian markets, Chinese equities led gains among peers to touch fresh seven-year highs on expectations of more economic stimulus measures from Beijing.
The NSE Nifty opened modestly higher at 8,801.75 and hovered between a high of 8,841.65 and a low of 8,762.10 before concluding at 8,834, showing a healthy rise of 53.65 points or 0.61 percent.
Infra, healthcare, energy, FMCG, metal, technology and realty were among the best sectoral indices alongwith mid-cap and small-cap, while auto and banking ended marginally lower.
Biggest percentage gainers were L&T, Reliance, ITC, Sun Pharma, HDFC, Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank, HUL, BHEL and Cipla among others.
While, M&M, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, ACC, Axis Bank, Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite ended with loses.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 16,354.64 crore against Rs 18,327.94 crore last Friday. A total of 8,126.38 lakh shares changed hands in 77,74,086 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 10,420,430 crore.
