Nifty closes above 5500 on oil & gas, banks, infra support

The benchmark Nifty rose nearly 1%, to close above the 5,500-mark for the first time in last nine days, supported mainly by oil & gas, banking and capital goods companies' shares. Fuel price hike on Friday after market hours and further fall in crude oil prices pushed the benchmarks higher on Monday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex added more than 850 points in three days, before closing at 18,412, up 172 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty gained 55 points, to settle at 5,526.

According to Rahul Mohindar of viratechindia.com, one should watch out for 5610-5620. "Once we get passed 5600 there is going to be lot of stocks breaking out key levels and that will be a huge sigh of relief from a broad market perspective," he said.

PSU oil & gas stocks were the top stars for the day, especially after hike in diesel prices and cut in custom duty. ONGC, BPCL and IOC gained 6-9%, before closing with 3-4.5% upside. Oil India and HPCL rallied nearly 6%.

The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has hiked diesel prices by Rs 3/litre on Friday evening. Government also increased kerosene prices by Rs 2/litre and cooking gas by Rs 50/cylinder.

Government also removed customs duty on crude oil and cut customs duty on petroleum products by 5%. It reduced excise duty on diesel by Rs 2.6/litre. In the international market, crude oil prices slipped further today.