MUMBAI: Extending the gains for the third day in a row, the benchmark Sensex today rallied by over 100 points on aggressive buying in blue-chip stocks Reliance Industries and State Bank of India.

After surging over 300 points during intra-day, the 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange pared more than half of the gains to end the day at 17,573.99 points, up 101.43 points, or 0.58 per cent.
Brokers said a sudden bout of profit-selling in the final session pulled the Sensex down. The Wide-based Nifty Index of the National Stock Exchange rose 0.30 per cent to 5,260.45 points.
Investors bought heavily into market leader RIL in anticipation of the company coming out with robust fourth quarter numbers tomorrow. Banking shares, led by SBI, also attracted good buying support.
Forecast of a robust economic growth of over 8 per cent for the country for the coming two years by the International Monetary Fund yesterday, too, boosted trading sentiments. Marketmen said investors discarded food inflation numbers, which jumped to 17.65 per cent for the week ended April 10.
“The market bounced back from its early morning lows on the back of heavy buying in RIL and SBI. The upward movement in SBI was seen on RBI’s monetary policy, whereas RIL gained on hopes of good numbers tomorrow,” Unicon Financial CEO Gajendra Nagpal said.
Analysts said market gained momentum in mid-session but pared the gains after European bourses came under pressure. “The U-turn in market in the last hour of trades could be attributed to a similar swing in European markets. Stocks in Europe turned lower after EU statistics agency revised up Greek’s fiscal deficit and warned of more upward revision,” IIFL Vice President (Research) Amar Ambani said.
Among the 30 constituents of Sensex, 15 scrips ended with gains, while 14 closed in red. NTPC ended at the same level it had closed in previous session. Auto stocks continued to rally today with Tata Motors moving up by 3.34 per cent, Hero Honda by 1.19 per cent and Maruti Suzuki by 0.26 per cent.