Mumbai, April 9 (IANS) The Indian stock market witnessed a rally on Thursday as the BSE Sensex jumped over 1,200 points to reclaim the psychological mark of 31,000.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also settled well above the 9,000 mark.

The rise in the domestic market was in line with the global indices and on hopes that the government would come up with a stimulus package in the coming days.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services said: "Indian equity markets rebounded after taking a pause yesterday, on hopes that the coronavirus pandemic was nearing its peak globally and second stimulus package from government is likely to be announced in coming days.

All the sectors ended in green with auto being the largest gainer. Metals, banking and pharma stocks also witnessed healthy buying during the day.

On the technical front, Khemka said that hurdle for Nifty is now placed around 9,400, followed by 9,800. On the flipside, immediate support is inching higher to 8,900 and then 8,650-8,550.

"A hold above 9,100-9,300 zones with follow-up buying interest could give a confirmation for a short term bottom process in the market with shift in higher trading bands," he said.

The Sensex closed at 31,159.62, higher by 1,265.66 points or 4.23 per cent from the previous close of 29,893.96.

It had opened at 30,571.19 and touched an intra-day high of 31,225.20 and a low of 30,420.22 points.

The Nifty50 settled at 9,111.90, higher by 363.15 points or 4.15 per cent from the previous close.

Among the Sensex stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra gained the most, by 16.74 per cent, followed by Maruti Suzuki India (up 13.16 per cent) and Titan Company (11.12 per cent). On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank and Nestle India were the only losers, as they lost 3.49 per cent, 2.57 per cent, 0.83 per cent and 0.03 per cent.

--IANS rrb/prs