Investor wealth rose for the third consecutive day on Thursday, gaining Rs 11,12,088.78 crore in three days, as equity markets continued their sharp rally.

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The BSE benchmark index Sensex advanced 1,410.99 points or 4.94 per cent to close at 29,946.77 on Thursday.

In three days, the index has gained 3,965.53 points. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies zoomed Rs 11,12,088.78 crore to Rs 1,12,99,025.06 crore in three days.

The government on Thursday unveiled a Rs 1.70 lakh crore economic package involving free foodgrain and cooking gas to poor for the next three months, one-time doles to women and poor senior citizens, higher wages to workers and measures to boost liquidity of employees as it looked to contain the impact of unprecedented nationwide lockdown.

"The key takeaway is that it will provide a solid support to rural and semi-rural economy due to high amount of benefit in terms of food, cash in hand and job safety. Regarding the market, it will provide safety to defensive stocks like the staple industries, but does not provide any relief to corporates like banks, hospitality and others," Geojit Financial Services Head of Research Vinod Nair said.

"It seems that the majority of the benefits announced is factored in the market given more than 15 per cent bounce from the recent low. The recovery of the market will continue if strict lockdown system is implemented in the developed markets and number of new virus cases reduces," he added.

The government will also frontload Rs 2,000 payment to farmers in the first week of April under the existing PM Kisan Yojana to benefit 8.69 crore farmers.

With businesses closed during the lockdown, the government will contribute employees as well as employer's contribution to the provident fund for the next three months for companies with up to 100 employees with 90 per cent earning not more than Rs 15,000.

The contribution will be a total of 24 per cent of eligible wages.

"FM came out with some announcements in terms of relief package which was majorly attributed to poor people and farmers who are facing major problems during lockdown, but there was no major thing which can boost market sentiments while the market has already rallied significantly in last 2-3 days in anticipation of some kind of announcements," TradingBells Senior Analyst Santosh Meena said.

From the 30-share frontline companies pack, IndusInd Bank grabbled the limelight, as it jumped 45.07 per cent.

Other big gainers were Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Auto.

On the BSE, 1,508 companies advanced, while 769 declined and 172 remained unchanged.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap and smallcap index rose by 3.49 per cent and 3.73 per cent, respectively.

All the sectoral indices ended higher, led by telecom and capital goods, which rose 10.04 per cent and 7.24 per cent, respectively.

First Published:Mar 26, 2020 6:36 PM IST