Sensex Soars 1,718 Points; Nifty Reclaims 25,000

Sensex close: It ended at 81,028.02, up 1,718.01 points (2.17%), crossing the 81,000 mark. Nifty close: The Nifty50 settled at 25,030.35, up 493.75 points (2.01%), back above 25,000. Streak and week: This is the seventh straight gain, and both indices closed at their intraday highs. The Sensex gained 8.8% and the Nifty 8.6% this week, their strongest weekly gains in six years, and both are at their highest closing levels in over eight months. Top gainer: Mahindra & Mahindra led the Nifty50 gainers, up about 5% (to around ₹3,260). Other gainers: ICICIBANK (+4.75%), HDFC Life (+3.95%), HDFC Bank (+3.72%) and Titan (+3.42%) followed, with Axis Bank up about 3.3%. Top loser: Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles fell the most, down 0.58% to ₹292.00. Other losers: Eicher Motors (-0.56%), Shriram Finance (-0.30%) and Grasim (-0.02%) were also lower, so declines were small and few. Sectors: Nifty IT, Metal, PSU Bank and Oil & Gas all closed higher, with private banks leading the rally. Small caps: There was heavy selling in some small caps, such as TD Power Systems (-13.47%) and Tenneco Clean Air India (-9.41%). Drivers: Sustained foreign fund inflows, easing crude oil prices and improving sentiment supported the rally, even as global markets sold off.