The market closed in the green, recovering all the losses incurred on Wednesday and snapping its three-day losing spree, on a smart performance by realty, banking and capital goods sectors. The Nifty may get resisted at 5,920-5,950, followed by a significant decline. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported a volume of 64.40 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 744:758.
The market opened flat on unsupportive cues from Asia and on nervousness ahead of the release of February inflation data, later in the day. Markets in Asia were mostly in the red in morning trade as curbs on Chinese property prices banks and real estate developers fell in mainland China and Hong Kong.
The Nifty opened trade five points down at 5,846 and the Sensex started the day at 19,367, up four points over its previous close. Buying in select stocks of realty, healthcare and oil & gas sectors led the market higher in initial trade.
However, selling in select banking stocks after a report of money laundering by some private banks soon pushed the indices lower to touch their intraday lows in the first hour of trade itself. At the lows, the Nifty fell to 5,792 and the Sensex slipped to 19,179.
The fall was temporary as buying at lower levels saw the market making a gradual recovery. Headline inflation for February, which came in at 6.84% from 6.62% in the previous month was brushed aside by investors as the market extended its gains in the noon session.
Banking stocks, which were in the red this morning, recovered in post-noon trade, with the BSE Bankex index emerging as the sectoral leader. A positive opening of the key European indices, ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels to ponder over austerity measures and rising unemployment, also supported sentiments in the domestic market.
The benchmarks hit their intraday highs in the last hour with the Nifty rising to 5,920 and the Sensex moving up to 19,605. The market closed marginally off the highs, snapping its three-day decline.
The Nifty advanced 58 points (0.99%) to 5,909 and the Sensex surged 208 points (1.07%) to settle at 19,570.
While the Sensex notched gains of over 1% today, the broader indices settled mixed. The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.48% and the BSE Small-cap index fell 0.09%.
The top gainers in the sectoral space were BSE Realty (up 2.18%); BSE Bankex (up 2.08%); BSE Capital Goods (up 1.34%); BSE Oil & Gas (up 1.26%) and BSE Metal (up 0.89%). BSE Consumer Durables (down 1.45%) was the only loser.
Twenty-four of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The main gainers were State Bank of India (up 3.51%); Maruti Suzuki (up 3.43%); Tata Power (up 2.86%); ICICI Bank (up 2.29%) and HDFC Bank (up 2.28%). The major losers were GAIL India (down 2.09%); Bajaj Auto (down 2.05%); Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.93%); Bharti Airtel (down 0.82%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.14%).
The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Jubilant Foodworks (up 6.26%) and Unitech (up 6.09%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—GAIL India (down 2.09%) and Bajaj Auto (down 2.05%).
The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Minaxi Textiles (up 16.67%) and Hiran Orgochem (up 16.28%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Ortin Laboratories (down 19.97%) and Everlon Synthetics (down 19.18%).
Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 38 ended in the green. The key gainers were Maruti Suzuki (up 3.55%); SBI (up 3.47%); Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 3.33%); Tata Power (up 3.16%) and BPCL (up 2.68%), The chief losers were Bajaj Auto (down 2.22%); GAIL India (down 2.03%); Bharti Airtel (down1.23%); Sun Pharma (down 0.88%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.44%).
Asian markets recovered from early losses to settle mixed on policy tightening measures in China. On the other hand, hopes of monetary stimulus buoyed sentiments in Japan.
The Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng both settled 0.285 higher; the Nikkei 225 surged 1.16% and the Seoul Composite rose 0.12%. Among the losers, the Jakarta Composite tanked 1.01%; the KLSE Composite declined 0.33%; The Straits Times fell 0.27% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.55% down.
At the time of writing, the key European indices were up between 0.25% and 0.59% and the US stock futures were trading higher, indicating a positive opening for US stocks.
Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs303.83 crore on Wednesday whereas domestic investors were net sellers of stocks amounting to Rs434.38 crore.
The Rajasthan government and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation have signed a pact for setting up a 9-MTPA capacity oil refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Barmer district at an estimated cost of Rs 37,230 crore. The project is expected to take about four years for going on stream after getting necessary approvals. HPCL gained 2.45% to close at Rs307.60 on the NSE.
BGR Energy has withdrawn from a contract, estimated to be Rs800 crore, for supply of power equipment to NTPC’s proposed 1,600 MW Darlipali project in Odisha, citing non-progress of the project. BGR Energy gained 1.17% to close at Rs207.80 on the NSE.
State-run Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) today said it has signed a loan agreement for $250 million with State Bank of India’s Hong Kong branch for lending to the infrastructure sector. The loan carries a floating rate of interest linked to 6-month LIBOR and has a door-to-door maturity of three years. The stock advanced 3.67% to close at Rs223.10 on the NSE.
