Indian shares closed up 0.70 percent on Thursday, capping a year that has seen the benchmark Sensex index rise nearly 80 percent - its biggest annual gain in 18 years. The 30-share index touched a 20-month high during the day before closing up 120.99 points at 17,464.81.
Turnover was 78.9 billion rupees (1.7 billion dollars), up from 43.03 billion rupees on Wednesday. "The positive bias already existed and today's gains were driven mainly by short-covering across the board," said independent investment adviser S.P. Tulsian. The vale of the Sensex more than halved in 2008 as overseas firms hit by the global financial crisis pulled out of foreign equities.
But it rebounded sharply as foreign funds came back in, investing 17.38 billion dollars in Indian stocks. Dealers acknowledged that government fiscal packages also helped. Paras Bothra, head of research at Ashika Stock Brokers, described 2009 as a "historical one by any standard".
"We haven't seen a stock market doubling in so short a span of time nor have we seen the stock market recovering so sharply right after a serious... fall from the top and wiping out a major chunk of the losses in just nine months time frame," he told the Press Trust of India news agency. Metals, autos and technology stocks gained the most from the recovery, with Tata Motors, India's largest vehicle maker, leading the pack, rising almost fivefold to 792.60 in the calendar year.
Thursday's close was the highest since May 5, 2008. The market is now 17.6 percent lower than its all-time of 21,206.77 achieved on January 10, 2008. Ambareesh Baliga, vice-president of Karvy Stock Broking, said he expected the index to rise to 18,000 when trading resumes on Monday. "We are closing on a very good note... the first week of January should look good," he said.
Infrastructure and capital goods stocks were among the winners Thursday, including Jaiprakash Associates, up 3.2 percent to 146.9, and Bharat Heavy Electricals, up 1.9 percent to 2,406.1. The country's largest lender by assets, State Bank of India, rose 2.0 percent to 2,269.45 while automaker Mahindra and Mahindra put on 1.7 percent to 1,080.80. The rupee strengthened against the dollar at 46.68 from 46.73 and weakened against the euro, reaching 67.07 from 67.02.