Banks, metals, oil & gas, infra drive Sensex 218 points higher

Equity benchmarks rallied for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, with the Sensex surging more than 200 points on the back of support from 25 out of 30 stocks including major heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Infosys and BHEL.

Aditya Narain of Citi expects to see further upside in the market with their Sensex target for December at 22,000 with a more aggressive portfolio/market mix, moderately better macro situation, slightly higher valuations and a bias towards large caps over midcaps.

"India has actually outperformed most equity indices over 2008 and it is currently a cheaper and more defensive market than in its heyday," he said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 218 points, to close at 18,206 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 66 points, to settle at 5,480.

Ashu Madan of Religare Securities feels that everything is factored in - all types of geo-political tensions or high interest rate regime, high inflation. "So below 5200 or 5300, it certainly doesn't look like. But having said that, obviously there is an upside band which is capped, which is 5600 band whenever it reaches there some amount of selling happens."

However, experts believe that crude oil remains a big concern for Indian market. Alroy Lobo, Chief Strategist & Global Head- Equity Asset Management, Kotak AMC said crude oil prices continued to be a dominant factor affecting market sentiment.