The market surged

The market surged in the afternoon trade led by solid rally in IT stocks after IT bellwether Infosys gave a confident medium-term outlook and said it has decided to increase the dividend payout ratio to up to 30% of net profits from the current year from 20% thus far. All the sectoral indices on BSE moved into the positive territory. Ranbaxy laboratories edged higher.

Positive opening in European markets and sharp recovery in Asian indices also aided the rally.

European markets, which opened after Indian markets, were in green. Key indices in UK, France and Germany were up between 0.34% to 0.93%. Asian markets, which were mixed earlier, were mostly in green. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan were up by between 0.36% to 1.57. However, South Korea’s Seoul Composite index was down 0.26%.

At 13:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 342.25 points or 2.17% at 16,149.89. The index gained 350.02 points at session’s high of 16,157.66, hit in afternoon trade. The Sensex slipped 234.61 points at day’s low of 15,573.03, hit in early trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty was up 112 points or 2.34% at 4889.80.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.12% at 6,596.03 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.13% at 8,172.82.

The market breadth was strong: on BSE, 1609 stocks gained, 868 stocks declined and 69 stocks were unchanged.