The Nifty and the Sensex closed in the green on rate cut expectations from RBI. The Nifty closed at 5,909 up 58 points while the Sensex closed at 19,570 up 208 points.
“The Sensex rallied as investors accumulated banks stocks ahead of the crucial monetary policy meet on March 19. Aiding the optimism on rate cut was the WPI number which came in at 6.84 per cent versus 6.6 per cent in Jan 2013. We reckon that there is a reasonable probability of a 25 bps rate cut,” said Sanjeev Zarbade Vice President- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
Volatility was down 9.51 per cent and the volatility index India Vix closed at 14.66.
Maruti, SBI, Ranbaxy, Tata Power and BPCL were the top five Nifty gainers while Bajaj Auto, Gail, Bharti Airtel, Sunpharma and Hero Motocorp were the top losers.