It was a roaring session for the benchmark indices led by largecaps; the Sensex posted more than 500 points rally while the Nifty shot up over 100 points, ahead of Election results on Saturday. This sharp rally was despite the weak IIP (Index of Industrial Production) data, which came in at -2.3% for March. Huge buying in technology, banking, realty, telecom and infrastructure stocks supported the markets to show strong upsurge.

The 30-share Sensex surged 511.64 points to touch an intraday high of 12,194.63, before closing at 12,158.03, up 4.07% or 475.04 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty ended 3.56% or 126.50 points higher at 3681.10, after hitting day's high of 3691.65.

Among the frontliners, HDFC, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Hindalco and BHEL were up 5-7.7%. Jaiprakash Associates, M&M, Reliance Communication, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Reliance Infrastructure, TCS and DLF gained 3.5-4%.

Rahul Mohindar of viratechindia.com said, "This is something which is beyond short covering. I didn't think that there were too many shorts built in last two days; there was probably a wave of profit taking from that 3,750 odd resistance. So I think giving a slightly bigger perspective probably the market is heading to levels like 3,950."

The fifth and last phase of Election polling will begin tomorrow (May 13, 2009) and the results will be out on May 16, 2008, Saturday.

Devesh Kumar, MD of Centrum Broking said, ''The comfort is coming in that one of the two large formations, they will lead the new formation that is one and the second part is the realizations as far as economic policies are concerned; no one has any concerns there that will be followed. The only thing is the pace of execution and stability of government; these are two things which are very much in minds of people.'' ''As we have come to an end of very strong polling, people are discussing various formations and no one is untouchable at this point in time which makes a five-year formation of the next government very likely. So I think uncertainty is going away and incase, it materializes after elections then the market will be in a good mood'', he said.

On the sectoral front, IT and TECK indices surged over 5%. Bank and Oil & Gas indices gained 4.8% and 4%, respectively. Realty, Power, Capital Goods and Metal indices were up 2-3.8%.

Economic data
Industrial production numbers for March have come in at -2.3% as against -0.7% in February. FY09 IIP has come in at 2.4% as compared to 8.5% in FY08. IIP for February has been revised to -0.7% versus -1.2% earlier.

Sonal Varma, India Economist, Nomura Financial Advisories & Securities, said recovery in the initial phases will be led by consumption. ''Government spending is driving a lot of demand particularly in the consumer goods segment. Even though external as well as investment demand will remain sluggish, incrementally we should see positive IIP numbers. We are looking at 4.2% on an average in FY10.''

Sectoral indices
The BSE IT Index outperformed other indices, surged 5.19% or 140.06 points, to 2,836.77. Wipro was up 7.4% and Infosys gained 5.51%. TCS went up 3.57%.

Telecom stocks also witnessed buying interest; Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular were up 5.6-6.1%. Reliance Communication surged 4.04%.

Banking was another space that helped the markets to post strong rally; Kotak Mahindra Bank shot up 9.47%. Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, PNB, HDFC Bank and SBI gained 2.8-8%. Bankex went up 4.83% or 288.12 points, to 6,250.68.

Buying was seen in oil & gas sector as well; Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum were up over 5%. HPCL, Cairn India, IOC and BPCL gained 1.5-3.7%. ONGC was up 0.34%. Respective Index shot up 3.97% or 330.49 points, to settle at 8,660.19.

Real Estate stocks like HDIL, Unitech, Orbit Corporation, DLF and Indiabulls Real surged 2.68%, which helped the Realty Index to gain 3.77% or 84.30 points at 2,317.57.

Power stocks also charged up; Suzlon Energy shot up 8.02%. Reliance Power, Power Grid Corp, Reliance Infrastructure, GMR Infra and GVK Power gained 3.3-4.4%. Respective Index was up 3.02% or 64.39 points, to 2,199.87.

Capital Goods stocks also joined the rally in the second half of the trade; BSE Capital Goods Index went up 2.72% or 225.78 points, to 8,521.91. BHEL, Punj Lloyd and L&T went up 2-5%.

In the metal space, Hindalco, Jindal Steel, NALCO, JSL, SAIL, Tata Steel and Sterlite were up 1.4-5.3%. Respective Index closed 2.12% or 165.35 points higher at 7,978.52.

The BSE Auto Index was up 1.76% or 63.97 points, to 3,695.96, as M&M, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Bharat Forge gained 2-4%.

The BSE Healthcare Index went up 1.33% or 41.22 points, to 3,130.69 and the BSE FMCG Index was up 1.02% or 21.08 points, to 2,091.69.

Broader indices - the BSE Midcap Index ended at 3,746.24, up 0.94% or 34.82 points and the Smallcap Index rose 1.32% or 55.39 points, to 4,240.71.

Among the midcap stocks, JM Financial, Motilal Oswal, Jindal Saw, HDIL and Jaiprakash Hydro gained 8-20%. In the smallcap space, 3i Infotech, Premier, Accel Frontline, Polaris, Manaksia, Hercules Hoists and Resurgere Mines shot up 10-21%.

Tea stocks like Dhunseri Tea, Harrisons Malyalam and Jayshree Tea surged 9-12%. Mcleod Russel and Tata Coffee gained 2.4-4%.

There was a surge in volumes as compared to previous session. Total traded turnover was at Rs 74,140.06 crore. This included Rs 15,537.26 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 53,677.79 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4,925.01 crore from BSE cash segment.

Market breadth was positive; about 1426 shares advanced while 1114 shares declined. Nearly 576 shares remained unchanged.

Global cues
At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were flat in trade. The FTSE was down 2 points, to 4,433 and the CAC fell just 0.56 points, to 3,248. The DAX went up 32 points, to 4,898.      

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones futures were up 34 points, to 8,436 and the Nasdaq futures rose 8.25 points, to 1,405.

Asian markets ended mixed. Taiwan Weighted lost 3.23% and Nikkei was down 1.62%. Kospi fell 0.82%. However, Shanghai went up 1.49%. Hang Seng and Straits Times gained 0.4-0.6%.