Markets Close Firm in Green

After almost six weeks of persistent weakness, the bulls today heaved a sigh of relief as the markets logged back-to-back solid gains. Friday's pull-back did not turn out to be a one-day wonder as in the past six weeks, but the in fact the markets carried from where it left on Friday was very heartening to see. Peace in Egypt which triggered a rally in world markets, helped sentiment and given the oversold conditions the bounce back in our markets was far more stronger. The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 211 points at 17,940. Heavy buying in capital goods, FMCG and auto space drove the BSE benchmark index to a high of 18,227. The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 474 points at 18,202 - closing above the 18,000 mark after four trading sessions. In the process, the index has now recovered 907 points from it's low of 17,295 in a matter of just two trading days. For the record, the index had slumped 3,369 points (16.3 per cent) in the preceding six weeks. Meanwhile on the economic front today, India's wholesale price index (WPI) rose an annual 8.23 per cent in January on higher food prices, government data showed on Monday. The figure exceeded the median forecast for an 8.05 per cent rise in a Reuters poll and was lower than the annual rise of 8.43 per cent in December. Further, the annual reading for November was upwardly revised to 8.08 per cent from 7.48 per cent. Also on Friday, India's annual industrial output growth slumped to 1.6 per cent in December, a 20-month-low from 3.62 per cent in the previous month. Asian stocks rose on Monday as investors greeted news of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation with relief. Hang Seng surged 1.2 per cent to 23,121. Shanghai Composite jumped 2.5 per cent to 2,898. Markets in Japan and Korea also soared over 1 per cent each.