Nifty may reach the level of 5,665. If it does so without a correction, watch out!

Optimism that Greece would stand by its austerity measures boosted the global markets, including India. All-round buying support from institutional investors saw the market make a northward journey right from the opening bell. Today the Nifty broke all its short-term resistance to close at 5,532, its highest since 27 July 2011. Yesterday we had mentioned that the index should cross the level of 5,430 to see the uptrend regaining strength. We may now see the benchmark going up to 5,665 if it manages to make a higher high and higher low. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a huge volume of 131.06 crore shares. However, while more gains seem to be on the cards, the market seems to entering a danger zone. A further rise would look like a parabolic rally which usually ends up with a big decline, even if it is temporary.

The market opened on a firm note on continuing institutional support and positive cues from the Asian markets, which were seen with good gains in morning trade. Broad-based buying resulted in all 50 stocks on the Nifty trading higher in initial trade. The Sensex added 151 points to open above the 18,000 mark and the Nifty started the day with a gain of 45 points at 5,461, 45 points, both showing their best opening since 2 August 2011. The opening figures of both benchmarks were also their intraday lows.

The rally continued to strengthen in the morning session on across-the-board buying supported by positive third quarter earning reports from local companies. While the market pared a small part of its gains in noon trade, the momentum picked up once again after the European markets opened with gains.

The indices hit their intraday highs at around 3pm with the Nifty scaling 5,542 and the Sensex jumping to 18,231. However, the market gave up some of the gains, but closed in the positive for the third straight day. The Nifty gained 116 points (2.14%) to settle at 5532 and the Sensex jumped 354 points (1.98%) to finish trade at 18,202.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was in favour of the gainers at 1271:489.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index jumped 2.10% and the BSE Small-cap index climbed 1.33%.

Barring the BSE Oil & Gas index (down 0.32%), all other sectoral gauges settled higher. They were led by BSE Realty (up 5.01%); BSE Capital Goods (up 4.01%); BSE Power (up 3.56%); BSE Bankex (up 3.55%) and BSE Auto (up 3.33%).

Tata Motors (up 6.91%); DLF (up 6.05%); Tata Power (up 6%); Larsen & Toubro (up 5.06%) and BHEL (up 4.53%) were the top Sensex gainers. Reliance Industries (down 1.43%); Cipla (down 0.75%) and Hindustan Unilever (down 0.75%) were the losers on the index.

Reliance Power (up 12.85%); Jaiprakash Associates (up 8.11%); Tata Motors (up 7.39%); Axis Bank (up 7.11%) and DLF (up 6.46%) were the key gainers on the Nifty. The top laggards on the Nifty were RIL (down 1.23%); HUL (down 0.96%); Cipla (down 0.68%); Cairn India (down 0.57%) and Sun Pharma (down 0.24%).

Markets in Asia finished in the green on optimism from Greece that it would stay committed to its harsh austerity measures, a much-needed requirement to secure a fresh bailout. Besides, reports that the Chinese central bank would continue to invest in Eurozone government bonds also helped the gains.

The Shanghai Composite surged 0.94%; the Hang Seng jumped 2.14%; the Jakarta Composite added 0.01%; the Nikkei 225 climbed 2.30%; the Straits Times rose 0.81%; the Seoul Composite advanced 1.13% and the Taiwan Composite settled 1.54% higher. Bucking the trend, the KLSE Composite fell by 0.30%. At the time of writing, the key European bourses were trading with gains of over 1% and the US stock futures were in the positive.

Back home, foreign institutional investors continued their buying spree—they were net buyers of stocks amounting to Rs1,030.12 crore on Tuesday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of shares totalling Rs408.64 crore.

Healthcare major, Apollo Hospitals, said on Wednesday that it would add 1,000 beds by the end of next fiscal at an investment of around Rs720 crore. At present, Apollo Hospitals has a capacity of over 8,500 beds across 54 hospitals within and outside India. The stock gained 1.63% to close at Rs624.45 on the NSE.

Paint major Berger Paints India has forayed into the construction chemicals sector and has fixed a sales target of Rs25 crore in the first year of operation. Towards this end, the company today launched a new range of construction chemicals and new roof paint under its ‘Home Shield’ banner. The stock rose 1.32% to settle at Rs103.90 on the NSE.

Chennai-based, Gemini Communication has bagged contract from a large telecom operator to offer solar power to 1,000 telecom towers in 2012-13. The contract is expected to fetch revenues of Rs60 crore. Powering a telecom tower with a diesel genset typically costs around Rs80,000 a month, but with solar energy the cost could be brought down to Rs50,000. The stock declined 1.15% to close at Rs25.80 on the NSE.