Mumbai: The stock market rose for the third successive day on short covering, with benchmarks Sensex and Nifty-50 gaining 4.9 per cent each from the intra-day lows touched on March 7.
The Sensex gained 817 points or 1.50 per cent on Thursday to close at 55464 as it recovered further from March 7 lows of 52842.75.
The market saw some profit taking after opening at intra-day high of 56242, a gap of 1595 points from the previous close at 54647 and rising more than 2 per cent for a second consecutive session as international crude oil price eased 5 per cent to $120 per barrel.
The NIfty-50 gained 249.55 points or 1.53 per cent closing at 16594.90 after a dip to 15860 levels earlier this week.
On Thursday gains were aided by favourable state assembly elections outcome in favour of the BJP in UP, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.
"Market inched higher for the third successive session and gained over 1.5 per cent, tracking positive global sentiment, easing crude oil prices led to the gap-up opening in the benchmarks. As the day progressed, sentiments got a boost also from state elections outcome as trends indicated a clear majority to the BJP in four states out of five, showing political stability," Ajit Mishra, VP-research, Religare Broking, said.
Among the sectors, healthy buying was seen across the sectors led by BSE FMCG Index (2.68 per cent), Realty (2.16 per cent) and Metal (2.04 per cent).
The gains were also aided by relatively less selling by foreign portfolio investors of equities worth Rs 1,981.15 crore.
