Equities end sharply higher; Nifty shies away from 4900

15 Sep 2009, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: Equities ended on a strong note Tuesday buoyed by strong advance tax numbers reported by India Inc suggesting robust quarterly earnings. Realty, metals and banking stocks were frontrunners in the rally.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty shied away from the 4900 mark to settle at provisional 4893.05, up 1.76 per cent or 84.45 points. The index surged to a high of 4899.45 after opening at 4808.35.

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended at 16,448.66, higher by 1.45 per cent or 234.47 points from the previous close. The index touched a high of 16,477.23 and low of 16,255.42 intra-day.

The BSE Midcap Index climbed 1.66 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index rose 1.38 per cent.

BSE Realty Index surged 4.1 per cent, BSE Metal Index climbed 3.76 per cent and BSE Bankex advanced 2.56 per cent.

Significant gains in Jindal Steel (3.2%), DLF (2.99%), Nalco (2.89%), Sterlite Industries (2.36%) and Unitech (2.08%) drove the Nifty higher.

ONGC (-0.98%), Bharti Airtel (-0.88%) and Hindustan Unilever (-0.33%) were the laggards in the 550-share index.

Market breadth on BSE was extremely strong with 1770 advances against 1014 declines.