Nifty is about to give up some gains to prepare for a next upleg. A close below 6,700 on the Nifty may pull the index lower

The BSE 30-share Sensex and NSE 50-share Nifty opened Wednesday higher at 22,551 and 6,758, respectively. Both the benchmarks witnessed a range bound session until 1.30pm. Later it gained upward momentum to reach day’s high and closed almost near to it. Sensex reached upto 22,592 and closed at 22,551 (up 105 points or 0.47%) while Nifty hit a high of 6,764 and closed at 6,753 (up 32 points or 0.47%). Sensex hit a low of 22,473 while Nifty hit a low of 6,723. The NSE recorded a volume of 89.73 crore shares.

Except for F M C G (1.55%), Metal (0.53%) and M N C (0.21%) all the other indices on the NSE closed in the positive. The top five gainers were P S U Bank (3.42%), Smallcap (2.42%), Realty (2.27%), Nifty Midcap 50 (2.12%) and Media (1.90%).

Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 32 ended in the green. The top five gainers were Bank of Baroda (5.86%), I D F C (3.98%), P N B (3.27%), Bharti Airtel (3.00%) and Tata Motors (2.57%). The top five losers were Asian Paints (2.53%), Jindal Steel (2.28%), A C C (2.22%), I T C (2.12%) and Sesa Sterlite (1.69%).

Of the 1,541 companies on the NSE, 1,071 companies closed in the green, 410 closed in the red while 60 closed flat.

Reliance Industries was among the top seven gainers in the pack of Sensex 30 stocks. It hit its 52-week high and closed at Rs 956.05 on the BSE (up 1.58%). Reliance Industries said Export Development Canada (EDC), a leading financier and insurer of Canadian exporting companies, has offered a $500 million in financing.

Bharti Airtel was the top gainer among the Sensex 30 stock after a financial daily reported that the company plans to raise $2 billion via bond issue. The company said that it and its subsidiaries keeps on evaluating opportunities, on an ongoing basis to refinance the debt portfolio at efficient cost and maturity. Bharti Airtel rose 3.34% to close at Rs326.10 on the BSE.

A day after the RBI monetary policy review, where it kept the key rates unchanged, and after the election commission allowing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to announce new bank licences even ahead of general elections, the banking stocks were in news. Oriental Bank, Union Bank, Canara Bank and Uco Bank were among the top ten gainers in ‘A’ group on the BSE.

Engineers India was the top most loser in the ‘A’ group on the BSE. Assam based, Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has entered into a strategic agreement for commercialisation and joint ownership for production of petroleum wax with Engineers India Limited (EIL), Delhi and Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSR-IIP), Dehradun. A tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed on Monday. CSIR-IIP has generated laboratory scale optimal process scheme on the technology, based on which EIL has developed engineering design package. EIL fell 2.76% to close at Rs218.80 on the BSE.

US indices closed in the green on Tuesday. Institute for Supply Management's index rose to 53.7 in March from 53.2 in February, showing manufacturing was expanding as a winter-depressed first quarter ended. US car sales surged to an annualized rate of 16.4 million in March — the highest rate since November.

The Asian indices rose on the news of increase in the US manufacturing index. Except for Jakarta Composite (0.08%), NZSE 50 (0.12%) and Straits Times (0.18%) all the other Asian indices closed in the green. Nikkei 225 (1.04%) was the top gainer.

European indices were trading in the green while US Futures were trading marginally higher.