Mumbai: Samvat 2072, marking the start of the Hindu New Year, began on a positive note for Indian equities at a special trading session held on Wednesday.
Held every year on Diwali day, the special trading session saw both the bellwether indices of the Indian equities markets make healthy gains.
The annual one-hour special "muhurat" session was held between 5.45 p.m and 6.45 p.m.
The 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) made modest gains during the intra-session trade. It ended higher by 41.65 points or 0.54 percent at 7,825 points.
Furthermore, the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) augmented during the special trading session.
The S&P BSE Sensex, which opened 25,934.90 points, closed at 25,866.95 points -- up 123.69 points or 0.48 percent from the previous day's close at 25,743.26 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 25,944.93 points and a low of 25,853.42 points during the intra-session trade.
The S&P BSE Sensex had closed the previous day's trade down 392 points or 1.50 percent.
"The government's reforms proposals announced yesterday to hike foreign direct investment (FDI) limits in various sectors provide a sentiment boost to the investors," Anand James, co-head, technical research desk with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS.
"Investors were also focusing on the upcoming winter session and heightened chances of more reforms being pushed through this session like the goods and services tax (GST)."
The Samvat 2071 had proved to be the worst in four years for the S&P BSE Sensex, which shed over 1,100 points or 4.13 percent in the Diwali-to-Diwali Hindu fiscal which drew to a close on Tuesday.
The Hindu fiscal year Samvat 2071 had started at the level of 26,851.05 points -- that is the closing level at the end of the special trading session of Diwali last year, on October 23, 2014.
The previous three Hindu fiscal Samvats ended on a positive note, with the index gaining 26.42 percent in 2014, 14.07 percent in 2013 and 7.69 percent in 2012.
It was during a year before that -- in 2012 -- that the Sensex took a major hit, down 17.69 percent. The previous close in the negative was the 52.36 percent fall in 2008.
Analysts said that high expectations, the government's inability to push key reforms and global market turmoil such as the Greece crisis, slowing Chinese economy and an impending US rate hike dented investors' confidence.
"The market expectations were very high after the last year's exponential rise, formation of a single party government at the centre and its reforms agenda," James added.
"The upward trend since last Diwali was not sustained beyond March 2015, as political developments, slower pace of reforms and disappointing results eroded investors confidence."
Sector-wise during the day the special trade session all 12 indices closed with healthy gains.
The S&P BSE capital goods index augmented by 205.32 points, healthcare index gained by 175.42 points, banking index rose by 170.58 points, automobile index edged higher by 94.26 points and metal index was up 68.72 points.
Major Sensex gainers during Wednesday's trade were Axis Bank, up 2.50 percent at Rs.480.20; Sun Pharma, up 1.93 percent at Rs.746.55; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 1.41 percent at Rs.1,366.50; Tata Steel, up 1.33 percent at Rs.220.85; and BHEL, up 1.23 percent at Rs.180.55.
The major Sensex losers were Bharti Airtel, down 0.60 percent at Rs.330; Hero MotoCorp, down 0.49 percent at Rs.2,644.40; ITC, down 0.46 percent at Rs.335; NTPC, down 0.38 percent at Rs.131; and ONGC, down 0.19 percent at Rs.236.50.