Sensex zooms 348 pts on hopes of good monsoon

 Mumbai, Apr 11 (PTI) Buoyed by expectations of a good monsoon this year, the BSE Sensex regained the 25,000-mark on Monday by rebounding 348 points to snap its two-day losing run, as investors widened their bets in bank and IT sectors in the last two hours of the session.

Hopes of a strong performance from IT firms in the upcoming fourth quarter earnings, beginning Friday with Infosys, also boosted the sentiment.

The government on Monday said after two years of deficient rainfall, monsoon this year is expected to be normal.

"El nino condition is declining. It is expected that La Nina condition will takeover and will perhaps favour a good monsoon this year," Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Patnaik said.

Met Department's predictions will be out later this month.

Sensex resumed higher at 24,789.40 and hovered in a range of 25,049.92 to 24,523.20 before ending at 25,022.16, showing a recovery of 348.32 points or 1.41 per cent. The gauge had lost 226.79 points in the previous two sessions.

The NSE Nifty crossed the 7,600-mark in a volatile trade.

At the close, it was higher by 116.20 points or 1.54 per cent, at 7,671.40. It hovered between 7,678.80 and 7,516.85.

Out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 26 ended higher.

Adani Ports topped the gainers among Sensex constituent by surging 4.54 per cent to Rs 228.90.

Shares of Bharti Airtel too stole the show by climbing 4.20 per cent to Rs 348.35 after the company announced that it will acquire rights to use 4G spectrum of Aircel in eight telecom circles for Rs 3,500 crore.

Other big gainers included BHEL, Tata Motors, Wipro, TCS, Tata Steel, SBI, NTPC, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, L&T, Bajaj Auto, ITC Ltd, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Infosys.

Among losers, Lupin, Cipla, Dr Reddy's and M&M fell by up to 1.51 per cent, which restricted the upside in the indices.

Sector-wise, the BSE teck index gained the most by surging 2.25 per cent followed by power 2.10 per cent, auto 2 per cent, IT 1.92 per cent, metal 1.78 per cent, consumer durables 1.76 per cent, capital goods 1.70 per cent and banking 1.67 per cent.

While mid-cap rose 1.09 per cent, small-cap ended 0.63 per cent higher.

Globally, other Asian markets ended mixed while European stocks were higher in their opening trade.