Nifty closes at new 30-month high; financials, tech lead

The benchmark Nifty rallied for third consecutive day and closed at 30-month high, led by buying interest in technology, financial, realty, metal and select capital goods companies' shares.

It was the highest closing for Nifty since February 5, 2008. Index touched psychological 5400 level and Sensex tested 18000 mark in an intraday trade; this rally was led by oil & gas stocks while metal companies' shares underperformed. But profit booking & disappointing industrial production numbers wiped out about 73 points from day's high of 18,010.07 and 23 points from Nifty's day high of 5,402.70.

India is among the first markets to trade above recent highs, Trader, Atul Suri said in an interview with CNBC-TV18. "Market internals are looking very strong and relative outperformance is more satisfying than breakout. Many Nifty stocks like Infosys are trading above recent highs."

Technical Analyst, Ashwani Gujral felt Nifty is likely to test 5525 if it manages to cross 5400.

Brian Fabbri, Chief Economist, BNP Paribas (North America) says, it looks like India is probably going to be the country that grows the fastest and perhaps has maybe the best, at least in terms of consistency, track record, going forward.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,937.20, up 103.66 points or 0.58% and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 30.55 points or 0.57% to settle at 5,383.