The market has ended sharply higher. Strong upmove was seen on account of repo rate cut, positive European and Asian markets and huge surge in technology stocks. Buying was also seen in banking, FMCG, pharma, metal and few oil stocks. However, realty, power, few auto and capital goods stocks were under pressure. Selling was also seen in midcap and small cap stocks.

The Sensex closed with a gain of 247.74 points or 2.48% at 10,223.09, after hitting an intraday high of 10,538.05. The NSE Nifty Fifty Index surged by 48.45 points or 1.58%, to settle at 3122.80. It has hit a high of 3238.40.

Technology stocks took a big pie in today's gain of benchmark indices. IT Index went up 204.19 points or 8.05%, to close at 2,741.46. HCL Tech, Rolta, TCS, Wipro, Satyam, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Mphasis were up 7-10%. The Indian rupee was trading at around 48.7-49 to a dollar.

RBI's move of 100 bps repo rate cut with immediate effect has also played a key role in today's trade. The current repo rate (the rate at which banks borrow from RBI) stood at 8% from earlier 9%. This was the first repo rate cut by RBI since August 2003. RBI had already cut cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 250 bps in the last two weeks. All these moves are to increase liquidity in the banking system.

source:moneycontrol