Sensex zooms 292 pts to regain 28,000, Nifty hits 15-mth high

 Mumbai, Jul 25 (PTI) Market made a stunning comeback from early losses today as the BSE Sensex reclaimed the 28,000-mark by surging 292 points while Nifty closed at its highest level in 15 months, fuelled by widespread gains on optimism over passage of the GST bill in Parliament.

Moreover, continued foreign fund inflows and a firm trend in Asian and European bourses following assurances from global policymakers on the need to boost growth, lifted market sentiment.

Leaders from the Group of 20 countries agreed at the weekend to work to support global growth and better share the benefits of trade, in a meeting dominated by the impact of Britain's exit from Europe and fears of rising protectionism.

"Markets closed on strong note as participants engaged in widening their bets on hopes that much-awaited GST bill may by passed in Rajya Sabha," Manoj Choraria, a Delhi-based NSE stock broker said, adding foreign fund inflows will pick up further once the bill is passed.

The Sensex after resuming down at 27,753.96 slipped further to the day's low of 27,736.51. Thereafter, it staged a solid comeback to reclaim the 28,000-mark and hit a high of 28,110.37, before finishing 292.10 points or 1.05 per cent higher at 28,095.34, its highest closing since August 10.

The 50-share NSE Nifty recaptured the 8,600-level and went up to hit the day's peak of 8,641.15. It finally settled higher by 94.45 points or 1.11 per cent at 8,635.65. This is the highest close since April 16 last year when the index ended at 8,706.70.

From the Sensex pack, Maruti Suzuki India, the country s biggest carmaker, climbed 3.11 per cent to Rs 4,550.60 followed by SBI, rising by 2.86 per cent at Rs 229.85.

Other blue-chips that supported the rally included Asian Paint, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Sun Pharma, HDFC Ltd, TCS, M&M, HDFC Bank, Lupin Ltd, Cipla, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, L&T and Infosys.

Axis Bank after initial hesitancy on disappointing earning numbers, ended 0.14 per cent higher at Rs 538.30.

Sector-wise, BSE PSU gained the most (1.92 per cent) followed by banking (1.65 per cent), oil&gas (1.52 per cent), consumer durables (1.38 per cent), realty (1.15 per cent) infra (1.10 per cent) teck (0.96 per cent), power (0.96 per cent) and IT (0.96 per cent).

Buying activity in broader markets also gathered momentum, with the BSE small-cap index rising 1.05 per cent and mid-cap gaining 1 per cent.

Globally, Asian markets closed the day mixed with Hang Seng rising 0.13 per cent, Shanghai Composite Index up 0.10 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei fell 0.04 per cent.

European stocks were higher in their early session. Key indices, like the UK's FTSE was up 0.17 per cent, Paris CAC gained 0.77 per cent and Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.98 per cent.