Nifty ends above 6,000 on good global cues; banks, metals lead

The benchmark Nifty closed above the 6,000 - a psychologically important level - for the first time in last 12 sessions, led by financial, metal, realty and select infrastructure companies' shares. The Sensex has seen 20,000 mark today at close for first time in last 24 sessions.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries was the leader today along with those sectors; rose 1.55% as the company started drilling second well in KG-D9, Hardy Oil said. Results of KG-D9 well drilling will be seen in January-March.

Positive global cues played a key role in today's uptrend. Asian markets were strong in trade; Shanghai, Hang Seng, Nikkei and Jakarta rallied 1.5-2%. Kospi was up 0.8%, Taiwan up 0.67% and Straits Times went up 0.22%. European markets were also trading 0.7% higher, at the time of closing of Indian equities.

Gautam Shah, CMT and VP of Financial Services at JM Financial feels the markets are on track to test new highs and expects the markets to rally by 10-15% in early January 2011. "The November to January period has been traditionally good for the markets so expect a clean run in January," he said. Shah also sees a 10-15% upside in IT stocks from the current levels.

However, upside was capped to some extent due to selling in Sun Pharma, Infosys, TCS, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, HUL, Dr Reddy's Labs, Hero Honda, and BPCL along with cement companies' shares.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 20,060.32, up 171.44 points or 0.86% and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 53.60 points or 0.90% to settle at 6,000.65. The BSE Midcap Index was up 0.8% and Smallcap up 0.95%.