For the sixth consecutive day today, the markets lodged gains as traders and investors mopped up shares on the back of renewed optimism. The BSE benchmark index, the Sensex, has rallied nearly 1,300 points, or 7.2% in the last six days, with robust buying seen in the auto, teck and metal counters. Worldwide too, the markets were on an upswing owing to bargain buys, and sobering oil prices, after the Japanese disaster of March 11 rattled investor sentiment globally.
The markets opened on a strong note today, as the Sensex scaled the 19k mark for the first time in two months. An uptrend was observed through the day, with the Sensex touching a peak of 19,226 a little after the late noon session began. At close, the bourses pared their late noon gains to end higher than the previous close; the Sensex ended at 19,121 up 178 points, while the Nifty closed at 5,736 up 49 points.
Reliance Communications advanced 4% on the Sensex to end at Rs 110, followed by Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,245, also up 4%, and DLF at Rs 255 up 3%. Bharti Airtel at Rs 358 up 3% and Tata Power at Rs 1,329 up 2% were the other major gainers on the benchmark today. Sterlite Industries, HDFC, Tata Motors, Hero Honda and Reliance Infra were all up 2% each.
Conversely, BHEL and ICICI Bank were the only stocks in the red on the benchmark index. BHEL at Rs 2,067 was off 1.5%, while ICICI Bank at Rs 1,099 was flat, but with a negative bias.
The broader markets underperformed today, with the Mid-cap index at 6,748, flat with a negative bias, while the Small-cap index was down 0.4% at 7,976. Amongst the small-cap stocks, Accentia Technologies touched its lower circuit at Rs 92 down 20% today, while Ushdev International was down 8% at Rs 328 and Vikas WSP was down 7% at Rs 18.
Auto stocks were in top gear today, and the index zipped ahead by 2% at 9,135. Top gainers in this lot were Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,245 up 4%, Exide Industries at Rs 140 up 3% and Tata Motors at Rs 1,245 up 2%. Hero Honda gained 2% at Rs 1,530 after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) met today to discuss the Hero Group's fund raising of Rs 4,500 crore for funding the buyout of its erstwhile partner Honda’s stake. Mahindra & Mahindra also advanced 2% to Rs 689.
The Teck index advanced 1% to 3,785. Deccan Chronicles at Rs 83 was the major gainer in this space, followed by MphasiS at Rs 425, both up 6%, and Relaince Communciations at Rs 110 up 4%.
Metals also shone today, and the index gained 1% at 15.969. Sesa Goa led the gains at Rs 288 up 5%, followed by Jindal Saw at Rs 196 and Hindustan Zinc at Rs 141 both up 3%. Sterlite Industries and Jindal Steel were up 2% each.
The Capital Goods index ended flat at 13,187, while the FMCG and PSU indices gained marginally at 3,554 and 8,830 respectively.
Speaking about her views on the current domestic market scenario, Punita Kumar-Sinha of Blackstone Asia Advisors said, "Currently, we are evaluating our view on Indian markets versus the rest of Asia. It is highly likely that inflation will taper off in the second half due to base effect, unless crude continues to spike up. Valuations of Indian markets versus the rest of Asia have also become more reasonable and at this point if other factors improve we will increase our weightage on India."
Although the Nikkei declined barely 0.2% to 9,459 today after seeing a sharp loss during early trade, analysts said increasing worries about the nuclear crisis in Japan, coupled with pressure on future corporate earnings because of the earthquake and tsunami, may dampen investor sentiment in the near future.
China's Shanghai Composite at 2,958 shed 1%, while the Hang Seng edged down marginally at 23,060. Singapore's Straits Times was flat at 3,057, but the Seoul Composite moved up 1% at 2,072, and the Taiwan Weighted ended up 0.5% at 8,597.
European markets were under slight pressure today, as the banking sector was projected to generate lower returns should banks hold less capital in the future, thus discounting the positive effects of economic growth. Also, concerns over Japan, the crude oil issue and the global monetary policy weighed on the markets today. France's CAC 40 was off 0.6% at 3,954, while Germany's DAX was down 0.8% at 6,882 and the UK's FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% to 5,886 at 1700 hours.