Sensex closes 379 points up, Nifty at 10,988

Mumbai, March 5 (IANS) Attractive valuations and ease in Indo-Pak tensions as well as strong gains in the Indian rupee helped the benchmark Sensex gain 379 points, while the Nifty ended shy of the 11,000-mark amid strong gains in financial, oil and gas stocks.

However, Asian stocks closed on a mixed note as China lowered its economic growth target for this year to 6-6.5 per cent.

Except for IT and Tech stocks, all sectoral stocks ended in the green with the finance and banking stocks leading the pack.

"Most of the uncertainty on the global as well as domestic front is behind us now and our markets gave it a big 'Thumbs up' in the absence of any unfavourable outcome from these developments," said Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst - Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking.

"In fact, during the second-half, we saw complete gush in the market as there few heavyweight pockets like banking, and oil and gas had soaring moves."

The S&P BSE Sensex closed 378.73 points or 1.05 per cent higher at 36,442.54, while the Nifty closed 123.95 points or 1.14 per cent up at 10,987.45.

Besides, the midcap and small cap space also rallied gaining 2.11 per cent and 3.11 per cent, respectively.

"Mid and small caps outperformed after one year of underperformance, as investors' strategy has changed from sell on rally to buy on dips due to attractive valuations," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

Tata Motors stocks jumped 9 per cent on the BSE during the early hours of the trade after the company on Friday clarified "there is no truth to the rumours" that it may divest its stake in Jaguar Land Rover.

Among other who gained were Tata Motors(DVR), Hero MotoCorp, Axis Bank and ONGC.

The losers were Infosys, Hindustan Uniliver, TCS, Power Grid and Larsen & Toubro declining up to 1.15 per cent.