Nifty to move in the range of 5,475 and 5,600

Institutional buying and strong cues from the global markets saw the indices staying in the positive zone for the entire trading session. After a monster rally, all kinds of average to poor quality stocks have now started to shoot up. From here we may see the Nifty reaching the level of 5,600 again, after which we may see the index touching 5,475. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 143.76 crore shares.

Boosted by the government’s initiatives to lure overseas investments, foreign investors continued their buying in Indian equities, pushing the market higher this morning. Positive sentiments across the globe also helped the gains. After a day’s breather where the benchmarks settled with minor losses yesterday, the Nifty opened 52 points higher at 5,574 and the Sensex jumped 179 points at the opening bell at 18,331.

The market hit its day’s high around 10.30 am amid a range-bound movement after a strong opening. At the highs, the Nifty scaled 5,607 and the Sensex surged to 18,423.

The market extended its gains in noon trade following a firm opening of the European markets. However, the indices pared a small portion of their gains in a minor sell-off that began around 2pm. The market dropped to its intraday low in the post-noon session with the Nifty falling to 5,545 and the Sensex moving down to 18,235.

The market ended above the day’s lows as select buying lifted sentiments towards the end of the session. At the close, the Nifty gained 42 points to 5,564 and the Sensex finished at 18,289, up 135 points.

Despite the market settling in the positive, the advance-decline ratio on the NSE was in favour of the losers at 667:792.

The broader indices in the negative today, with the BSE Mid-cap index shedding 0.05% and the BSE Small-cap index falling 0.21%.

The sectoral gainers were led by BSE Consumer Durables (up 4.21%); BSE Power (up 2.92%); BSE Capital Goods (up 1.51%); BSE IT (up 1.42%) and BSE Bankex (up 1.41%). BSE Auto (down 0.53%); BSE Metal (down 0.11%) and BSE Healthcare (down 0.09%) settled lower.    

BHEL (up 6.53%); Tata Power (up 4.68%); Mahindra & Mahindra (up 3.29%); Sterlite Industries (up 2.98%) and State Bank of India (up 2.88%) were the top gainers on the Sensex. The top losers were Hero MotoCorp (down 3.61%); Maruti Suzuki (down 2.74%); Hindalco Industries (down 2.30%); GAIL India (down 1.21%) and Cipla (down 1.20%).

The top Nifty gainers were BHEL (up 6.48%); Tata Power (up 4.39%); Axis Bank (up 4.35%); Siemens (up 3.95%) and M&M (up 3.56%). The key declining stocks were Hero MotoCorp (down 3.93%); Sesa Goa (down 3.66%); Maruti Suzuki (down 2.57%); Reliance Infrastructure (down 2.13%) and Hindalco Ind (down 2.01%).

Markets in Asia settled higher on optimism that European policymakers will soon approve a fresh bailout for the debt-stricken nation. Positive economic data from the US, released on Thursday, also supported the gains. Meanwhile, the Japanese government on Friday approved a plan to gradually double the 5% sales tax to pay for welfare spending.

The Shanghai Composite settled flat, up 0.01%; the Hang Seng surged 1.01%; the Jakarta Composite advanced 1.25%; the KLSE Composite rose 0.43%; the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.58%; the Straits Times climbed 0.79%; the Seoul Composite surged 1.30% and the Taiwan Weighted gained 0.31%. At the time of writing, the three key European indices were trading higher and the US stock futures were mixed.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs184.31 crore on Thursday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities worth Rs390.32 crore.

Film and entertainment services provider Reliance MediaWorks (RMW) has tied up with Japan's leading broadcaster TV Asahi to produce new episodes of Ninja Hattori, the comedy action animation series. Ninja Hattori has been a very popular kids’ show since its launch on channel Nick India in August 2006. The new episodes will premier on air on Nick India from May 2012. RMW fell 1.06% to close at Rs88.60 on the NSE today.

Lanco Infratech has said that more than 5,000 MW of its planned and existing generation capacities would get a boost from Coal India’s decision to sign fuel supply pacts for power projects. Lanco Infratech zoomed 11.08% to close at Rs22.55 on the NSE.

Pipe manufacturer MAN Industries has bagged an export order worth Rs500 crore from West Asia for supply of large diameter pipes for oil and gas sector. With this new order, the company’s order book stands at nearly Rs1,600 crore. The order is to be executed over a period of next nine to 12 months. The stock climbed 2.83% to close at Rs112.60 on the NSE.