Bull-run Picks Up Steam As Sensex Soars 485 Points To Reach 2016 High

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rose for the third day in a row on Thursday, with benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty climbing nearly 2 percent each, as expectations of a good monsoon, stellar results posted by L&T and the government's decision to approve the first-ever policy for the capital goods sector to boost the manufacturing sector in the country, triggered heavy short-covering by speculators on the eve of F&O expiry.

After climbing as much as 576 points on Wednesday, the BSE Sensex today surged 485.51 points or 1.88 percent to 26,366.68 amid heavy buying in capital goods and banking stocks. The broader Nifty index jumped 134.75 points or 1.70 percent to close above the crucial 8,050 mark.

Larsen & Toubro soared 14 percent after the construction and engineering major reported a better-than-expected 18.53 percent rise in quarterly net profit and said it would decide on when to launch the IPO of L&T Infotech in a week's time.

BHEL climbed 5 percent after commissioning an 800-MW supercritical thermal unit in Karnataka. SBI advanced 5.4 percent ahead of its quarterly results due on Friday. ONGC rose 1.8 percent as its Q4 profit jumped over three fold. Cairn India gained 2.4 percent and Oil India added 1.6 percent.

Globally, Asian stocks ended a choppy session mostly higher as gains in oil prices and positive cues from overseas markets outweighed concerns about a slowdown in Chinese growth and prospects of higher interest rates in the U.S. The yen saw a sudden spike on the eve of G7 summit talks, with leaders of the world's seven major industrial democracies expected to promote monetary, fiscal and structural policies to spur growth in their communique, when the summit ends on Friday.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaks Friday on the economy at Harvard and her comments could provide further clues about whether the central bank would raise interest rates in June.

European shares eked out modest gains in early trade, with commodity-related shares rallying, as a weaker dollar pushed copper and oil prices higher. Brent crude futures pushed above $50 a barrel for the first time this year on worries about global supply outages and data showing a significant drop in crude stocks last week.