Markets end in green but off day's high

Mumbai: The markets ended in green but off the day's high on account of some profit booking during the later part of the day.

The Sensex and the Nifty crossed some important levels; Sensex breached 12,400 levels and the Nifty moved beyond 3,600 mark.

The stock exchanges extended their rally to second straight day with the Benchmark Sensex rising past 12,400 level during morning trading on strong global cues as well as sustained shortcovering in the Futures.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) breached the 12,400 level for the first time since May 12 and touched a high of 12,442.82, a whopping rise of 121.63 points over yesterday's close of 12,321.19.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty spurted to a high of 3,603.70 from previous close of 3,571.75, a rise of 31.95 points.

Buoyed by strong trend in global markets, stocks rallied smartly on the back of fresh buying support from operators and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

Operators and FIIs were engaged in covering short positions in the futures and options (F&O) segment ahead of the expiry of September contract tomorrow.

The major support came in from heavy-weighted stocks such as Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, Tata Consultancy, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, BHEL, Hero Honda, Ranbaxy, Cipla, Dr Reddy's Lab, HDFC and State Bank of India.

The bourses witnessed a block deal of 20 lakh shares in Petronet LNG at Rs 46.75.