Closing at 17-month high

The market maintained its uptrend for the second consecutive day and closed at 17-month high.

The Nifty closed above the 5,100 mark and the Sensex ended above the 17,200 level, for the first time since May 21, 2008. Today's rally was mainly led by metal, auto, infrastructure, realty and banking stocks. However, huge selling was seen in telecom, oil marketing and airline companies' shares.

Global cues remained supportive throughout the session. European markets went up nearly 2% and the US index futures gained over 1% each, at the time of writing this report. Asian markets also ended higher; Hang-Sang rose nearly 2%. Shanghai, Straits Times, Kospi, Taiwan Weighted and Jakarta Composite moved up 1.2-1.6%. Nikkei was flat.