Nifty hits 8,900 for first time since March 2015; Sensex zooms 311 points

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex jumped over 311 points and the NSE Nifty reclaimed the key 8,900-mark for the first time since March last year at mid-session on Wednesday on across-the-board buying led by banking, auto and consumer durable stocks amid sustained foreign fund inflows.

Besides, a firming trend overseas after a slowdown in the US job creation dimmed expectations of an interest rate rise by the Fed this month, too accelerated buying activity in domestic equities.

The 30-share index after surging nearly 250 points higher in early trade, continued its winning run to trade 311.37 points or 1.09 percent higher at 28,843.48. The gauge had gained 108.63 points in the previous session on Friday.

Sentiment also bolstered after India's services sector growth touched the highest level in over three-and-a-half years of 54.7 in August, from 51.9 in July, brokers said.

All sectoral indices led by banking and auto were trading in the positive zone with gains of up to 2,04 percent.

Also, the 50-share Nifty went past the 8,900-mark for the first time since March 5, 2015, by climbing 95.45 points or 1.08 percent to 8,905.10.

Those who notched up solid gains include Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, GAIL, Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paint, ICICI Bank, NTPC, SBI, M&M, Infosys and Hero MotoCorp, rising by up to 4.07 percent.

Broader markets were also in bullish form with mid-cap and small-cap indices adding up to 1.38 percent.

Globally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.40 percent, Shanghai Composite was up 0.46 percent while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.26 percent.