Sensex Gains For Fourth Day, Nifty Settles Above 8,150

Sensex rose nearly 300 points and the 50-share Nifty closed above its crucial psychological level of 8,150 as the stock market rally extended to fourth day on the back of gains in pharma and energy shares.

The rally in the markets is on the back of improving earnings which have raised optimism for a broader-based economic recovery, especially at a time when investors are betting monsoon rains will be stronger than average this year.

Mirroring the optimism, foreign investors have bought Indian shares worth a net $119.73 million so far this month, taking this year's inflows to $1.92 billion.

"Earnings have improved overall and this quarter's results have surprised markets positively," said Vaibhav Agrawal, vice-president & head of research at Angel Broking.

"India's macros and consumer-driven sectors are doing quite well and there is a clear-cut optimism that growth will pick up."

The Sensex rallied 287 points to settle at 26,654 and Nifty advanced 87 points to end at 8,157.

Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corp ended 9.19 per cent higher after the company reported upbeat March-quarter results.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries gained 5.85 per cent after U.S. subsidiary Taro Pharmaceutical Industries posted strong full-year results.

State Bank of India ended 6.38 per cent higher after the nation's top lender said that impact of asset quality review is behind and most of the stress is now recognized. Meanwhile, India's biggest lender by assets reported a worse-than-expected 66 per cent fall in quarterly profit, due to sharply higher provisions for bad loans.

Oil and Natural Gas fell 1.4 per cent after weak March-quarter oil production and core earnings.