Mumbai: A host of positive factors such as sustained gains in the rupee and easing tensions over Syria kept the stock markets upbeat for the fourth session on Tuesday with the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex zooming 727 points, the most in more than four years.
The rupee continued its upward journey for the fourth consecutive day and ended the day at a two-week high of 63.84 against the dollar, up 140 paise or 2.14 per cent.
All sectoral indices gained, led by auto, capital goods and FMCG stocks.
The top Sensex winners were Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp and Larsen and Toubro. Apart from the rupee's gains, investors were buoyed by trade data that showed exports on the uptick for the second straight month in August, a revival in car sales last month and a cut in the floor price for auctioning telecom spectrum.
The 30-share Sensex resumed on a strong note as Asian stocks rose, triggered by a rally on Wall Street on Monday. The index breached the 20,000 mark for the first time since July 25, before settling at 19,997.10, higher by 727.04 points or 3.77 per cent.
It was the biggest gain in absolute terms since the Sensex surged 2,110.79 points, or 17.34 per cent, on May 18, 2009, when the UPA government came to power. The NSE Nifty index jumped 216.35 points, or 3.81 per cent, to 5,896.75, after touching 5,904.85. MCX-SX's SX40 index ended at 11,849.66, up 458.1 points or 4.02 per cent.
The threat of immediate US-led military action against Syria appeared uncertain, with Washington saying it will consider Russia's call for Syria to turn over its chemical weapons to international control.
"Markets up-move continued today due to favourable trade data," said Rakesh Tarway, AVP of research at Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd.
"Moreover, indications of reduced tension in Syria also helped the markets today."
FII buying was also driven after the RBI allowed non-residents to buy shares of Indian entities listed on stock exchanges under the FDI scheme, subject to certain conditions. Among the sectoral indices, auto stocks were the winners. Domestic passenger car sales increased 15.37 per cent to 1,33,486 units in August, snapping a nine-month streak of declines.
Foreign institutional investors bought a net Rs 2,563.60 crore of shares on Tuesday and Rs 800.71 crore of shares on Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Asian stocks closed higher as data from China continued to point to a recovery in the world's second-largest economy amid signs that Syrian tensions are easing. Indices in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan rose.
European stocks advanced to a three-week high as data showed Chinese industrial production and retail sales rose in August, adding to signs the global economy is rebounding.
Key indices in France, Germany and UK rose. The US markets ended higher yesterday, helped partly by hopes the threat of US military intervention in West Asia could be abating. In the local market, 27 Sensex scrips ended higher, led by Tata Motors (9.88 pc), Bharti Airtel (8.15 pc), Hero MotoCorp (7.22 pc), Larsen (7.11 pc) and Sesa Goa (6.3 pc).
Among the sectoral indices, S&P BSE-Auto rose by 5.98 pc followed by S&P BSE-Capital Goods 5.5 pc, S&P BSE-FMCG 5.3 pc, S&P BSE-Consumer Durables 4.8 pc and S&P BSE-Power 3.04 pc. The market breadth remained positive as 1,502 stocks ended higher while 829 finished lower and 143 ruled steady.