Mumbai, April 13: Robust fourth-quarter numbers from Infosys and low inflation data today led to a strong rally on the bourses, with IT stocks leading the pack. The BSE sensex rose 270 points to close at 13384.08 and market experts expect more gains if India Inc continues reporting good quarterly numbers.

Infosys’ 70 per cent growth in fourth-quarter net beat the market’s own estimates as analysts were apprehensive that the appreciation in the rupee would hit the company’s performance during the quarter.

Infosys today dished out a modest guidance for the current fiscal, but the market expects the actual performance to be much better. Moreover, the good quarterly numbers from Infosys led to the optimism that other IT companies too would report positive numbers.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest software exporter, is set to report its quarterly numbers on Monday.

“All software stocks rallied after Infosys announced its numbers. The rally was mostly based on expectations that the other companies too would report good numbers, despite the rupee’s gain,” an analyst said.

Infosys shares ended higher by over 2 per cent. Satyam was the biggest gainer with a surge of 7.95 per cent, followed by HCL Technologies with a 7.3 per cent rise and TCS with a more than 5 per cent jump.

Mirroring the smart rise in IT counters, the sectoral BSE-IT index zoomed 192.13 points, or 3.94 per cent, to 5071.72.

“A lot of negatives prevailed across the market over the last few weeks, one being the appreciation of the Indian currency against the dollar. Now, with the onset of the results season, the market should see a steady rise,” said Manish Sonthalia, vice-president, market strategist at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

The BSE sensex opened firm at 13163.02 and later surged to the day’s high of 13421.05, before ending the day at 13384.08, a net rise of 270.27 points, or 2.06 per cent, over yesterday’s close of 13113.81. Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also flared up by 87.50 points or 2.28 per cent to close at 3917.35 from the last close of 3829.85.

Another factor which kept the momentum alive was the dip in inflation numbers. It is estimated that lower inflation figures could deter the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from raising rates when it announces the credit policy on April 24.