Sensex, Nifty swell; L&T, ONGC up 3.5%, JP Asso jumps 5.4%

Moneycontrol Bureau

Bulls have dug in their heels on the eve of Budget, with lot of hopes riding on Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Although the bloodbath in markets confirms that the last few sessions belonged to bears, the pullback today has once again ignited talks of a Budget rally. Experts say the turnaround is a result of short covering and not the magic of Economic Survey which pegged growth of Indian economy at 6.1-6.6 percent for FY14.

At 14.39 PM, the 30-share BSE Sensex touched high point of the day rising 194.56 points or 1.02% at 19209.70, and the Nifty climbing 54.35 points or 0.94% at 5815.70. The benchmarks were supported by Capital Goods, Telecom, Oil and Gas, Auto and Realty. Europe market too has opened mixed and appears stable. Specifically, Larsen, Bharti, ONGC, Mahindra and Mahindra, BHEL, DLF and JP Associates rose between 2.6 percent to 5.4 percent.

Interestingly, Cigarette major ITC was trading up 1.77% from its previous close which indicates traders are not too worried about any excise duty hike.

The midcap index too has been rising steadily in tandom with its largecap peers. Shares of Jet Airways climbed 17 percent to Rs 524.20 on media reports that its stake sale deal with Etihad may take off soon. According to CNBC-TV18 sources, Jet Air is learnt to have revised certain clauses like agreeing to give four seats to Etihad on its Board.

However, Core Education, Educomp, Kalindee Rail have continued their slide falling between 10 and 46 percent.