Trading on both the BSE and the NSE has been halted for the day as markets hit a 20% upper circuit, after re-opening for trade. At the beginning of today's trade, 9:55 am, the markets were locked at 15% upper circuit and exchanges halted the trade for two hours.

The UPA's (United Progressive Alliance) clean sweep win has cheered the markets and helped the benchmark indices to hit 20% upper circuit.

The 30-share Sensex closed 2,110.79 points or 17.34% higher at 14,284.21 and the Nifty surged 651.50 points or 17.74%, to settle at 4,323.15. The Sensex saw the 14,000 mark and the Nifty surpassed the 4,300 level for the first time since September 22, 2008. The Nifty May futures ended with 46.85 points premium.

Shankar Sharma of First Global said the win was an amazing verdict. ''My long-term prediction is that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) would reduce to 40 to 60 seats long ahead in the future,'' he said. ''This win is the ultimate game changer for the country, comparable to what happened in '84-'85 and in '91,'' he said. Sharma sees a 40% rally in the next two to three months time.

Anand Tandon, Director Equities, Brics Securities, said one should take some money off the table if 14,500 on the Sensex hits ''because no matter what the fact to the matter is that at some stage there are other factors other than just liquidity and euphoria which come in play.''

A lot of hedged positions were outstanding in the market today and hedges were taken via selling Nifty Calls.

Among the benchmark indices, the BSE Midcap was up 447.41 points or 11.75%, to 4,254.48 and the Smallcap Index rose 9.05% or 387.14 points, to 4,666.74.

Total volumes traded on both exchanges were at Rs 3100 crore. This comprised of Rs 2800 crore from the NSE F&O segment, Rs Rs 300 crore from NSE & BSE cash segments. Only 207 stocks traded on the NSE and 842 stocks on the BSE.

Previous incidence of markets hitting circuit

January 22, 2008: This was the latest instance that the market hit 10% lower circuit. The reason for the down circut was subprime loss, &  the dismal global markets cues.

October 17, 2007: The BSE Sensex crashed by 1743 points on 17 October 2007. The crash was led due to concerns of SEBI issuing new guideline for P-Notes

May 17, 2004: The markets crashed 5 years back when the NDA government lost to the Congress in Elections.

Sectoral Indices

The BSE Realty Index was up 23.45% and Capital Goods Index went up 21.9%. Among other indices, Bank and Oil & Gas indices were up 19% each.

Power Index moved up 18.33% and Metal Index gained 16.10%. TECk, Auto and IT indices rose 11.2-14%. Healthcare and FMCG indices gained 7.2-8%.

30 stocks on the Sensex

BHEL shot up 32.72% and L&T gained 29.53%. DLF, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Reliance Communication, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infrastructure, SBI, Jaiprakash Associates and Reliance Industries went up 20.62-25.9%.

Sterlite, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Grasim, Wipro, Hindalco, Tata Power, ONGC, TCS, M&M, NTPC, ACC and Ranbaxy Labs gained 11-16.5%. Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma, ITC and HUL surged 6.3-9.8%.

Market breadth was positive; about 1804 shares advanced while 779 shares declined. Nearly 537 shares remained unchanged.

Global cues

At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading lower. The FTSE 100 was down 0.14% or 6.22 points, to 4,341.89. The CAC 40 fell 18.62 points or 0.59%, to 3,150.43 and the DAX declined 54.27 points or 1.15%, to 4,683.23.

Asian markets were mixed. Hang Seng, Straits Times, Taiwan Weighted and Jakarta Composite gained 1.1-1.4%. Shanghai was up 0.28%. However, Nikkei fell 2.44% and Kospi was down 0.36%.