Indian market rallies after 2-day break
Thursday, the Indian market bounced back sharply in line with the rally in the other global markets in the past two days following some positive comments from the chief executive of Citigroup. Nevertheless, the market pared some of its gains in the last hour amid a weak trend in the other Asian markets and the European markets. The Indian market was shut for trading on Tuesday and Wednesday on account of festival holidays.
In economic news, the inflation rate rose 2.43% in the 12 months to February 28 compared to a rise of 3.03% a week earlier and 6.21% during the corresponding week last year. On the other hand, the index of industrial production contracted 0.5 percent in January as against the revised 0.6 percent contraction in the previous month.
Both the numbers came in line with market expectations. In fact, the upward revision of the December IIP data from -2.2 percent to -0.6 percent raised hopes that the worst phase is over. Analysts now look forward to some improvement in the February and March IIP numbers.
The BSE Sensex opened higher at 8,275 and rose to a high of 8,440 before finishing the day at 8,344, up 183 points or 2.25%. Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty rallied 44 points or 1.72% to 2,617.
The broad-based BSE 500 index moved up 1.75%, while the small-cap and the mid-cap indexes rose a modest 0.40% each. On the BSE, the market breadth was slightly negative, with decliners outnumbering advancers by 1262 to 1162.
Stocks of auto, banking, oil/gas, metal and IT companies showed sharp gains, while select consumer durable stocks such as Blue Star, Rajesh Exports, Videocon Industries and Titan Industries closed in negative territory.
Among the top gainers, ICICI Bank surged up 8.10%, Sterlite Industries jumped 7.26%, Tata Motors soared 6.77%, Maruti Suzuki climbed 5.83% and Sun Pharma rallied 4.78%.
Reliance Communication, Reliance Industries, ACC, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, BHEL, Wipro, TCS and Infosys were the other prominent gainers.
However, Bharti Airtel, Tata Power, NTPC, DLF and Ranbaxy Laboratories ended in the red.
Raj Television Network jumped 4.26% after it launched 'Raj Musix Kannada', a 24X7 television channel devoted to Kannada music lovers. Voltas moved down 1.06% after the company obtained shareholder approval for transferring its Chemicals Trading Business to DKSH India Pvt Ltd.
Gateway Distriparks rallied 2.56% after Allcargo Global Logistics acquired about 60.95 lakh shares, or nearly 6% stake in the company. Fulford (India) surged up 14.30% on speculation of a possible open offer from Merck & Co Inc.
Bharat Heavy Electricals gained 3.22% after it secured a new order worth Rs.81 crore. After falling over 15% in the past few sessions due to a foreign brokerage downgrade, Hindustan Unilever ended up over 4%.
Nagarjuna Construction closed flat despite bagging three new orders aggregating Rs.263 crore. Similarly, Aurobindo Pharma finished unchanged even as it received a tentative approval for Lopinavir/Ritonavir tablets 100/25 mg and 200/50 mg from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Bharti Airtel plunged 6.37% after the company's CEO and Joint Managing Director Manoj Kumar Kohli sold his entire stake of 70,000 equity shares through open market transactions. Concerns about the likely loss in revenue following a reduction in the termination fee by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India also weighed on the stock.
At the same time, CDMA operators such as Reliance Communication and Tata Teleservices rose sharply amid expectations that the latest move by TRAI would benefit these companies.
Tata Communications rose 1.65% after it raised $350 mls in the form of debt and bonds. TVS Motor gained 1.55% after its board took a decision to invest Rs.18.50 crore in its subsidiary company Sundaram Auto Components by way of a rights issue.
Tech Mahindra closed flat after it registered its interest in participating in the bidding process for the beleaguered Satyam Computers. Mercator Lines fell 2.73% after it took delivery of its premium Jack-up Rig through its subsidiary in Singapore.
ORG Informatics was locked in the 20% upper circuit limit after it bagged a new order worth Rs.19.70 crore from the IT Department of Meghalaya.
Reliance topped the traded value with a turnover of Rs.223.53 crore followed by ICICI Bank, Satyam, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Capital. Satyam topped the traded volume with trades of around 3.76 crore shares followed by IDFC, Rolta, ICICI Bank and Cals Refineries. |