Benchmark share indices ended at their 10-week closing highs on Tuesday, after the Reserve Bank of India's decision to boost liquidity by lowering the cash reserve ratio would help revive growth.
The RBI in the third quarter review of Monetary Policy cut the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 50 bps to 5.5%. CRR cut will infuse Rs 32,000 crore into the system. However, repo and reverse repo have been kept unchanged at 8.5% and 7.5%, respectively. RBI has kept Inflating forecast unchanged at 7%. GDP forecast has been brought down to 7% from 7.6% earlier.
The 30-share Sensex ended at 16,996 up 244 points or 1.46% and the 50-share Nifty ended at 5,127 up by 81 points or 1.6%. The Sensex and the Nifty reached an intra-day high of 17,050 levels and 5,141 mark, respectively. On November 14, 2011, the Sensex had ended at 17118.74 and the Nifty at 5,148.35.
On the global front, Japan's Nikkei ended marginally higher on hopes that a Greek debt deal may still be salvaged. Meanwhile, the European markets were trading lower. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE fell by nearly 0.5% each.
Back home, BSE Bankex surged by 3% post the Reserve Bank of India's move to cut the cash reserve ratio by 50 bps. SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC surged between 1-5%.
From the Capital Goods space, L&T was the top Sensex gainer, up by nearly 6% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the cash reserve ratio by 50 basis points and injected Rs 32,000 crore into the system to ease liquidity. Strong Q3 numbers announced yesterday also cheered the sentiment.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) gained nearly 2% after the company announced that the share buyback programme will begin from February 1, 2012. The stock plunged by nearly 3% yesterday on reporting disappointing numbers in the quarter ended December 2011.
Among Auto segment, Tata Motors, M&M and Hero MotoCorp surged between 1-4%.
Power stock like Tata Power gained nearly 3%. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week pledged help on chronic power shortages in the country after holding a meeting with business leaders on that day.
Metal stocks like Tata Steel, Hindalco, Jindal Steel and Sterlite gained between 1-4%.
IT stocks like Infosys and Wipro gained nearly 1% on recent slew of positive economic data in the US, the biggest outsourcing market for the Indian IT firms.
However, Coal India, Sun Pharma, NTPC, GAIL and HUL under performed and declined by nearly 1% each.
The broader markets ended on a higher note, both gaining by nearly 1%.
Strides Arcolab surged 17% after the company said Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc has agreed to buy Ascent Pharmahealth Ltd, the Australia and Southeast Asia generic pharmaceutical business of the company for Au$375 million in cash.
Infra stocks like GMR Infrastructure, IRB Infrastructure, Sobha Developers and HDIL have rallied 6%.
JSW Energy soared 11%, extending its yesterday’s 9% rally, after it reported lower losses at Rs 82.67 crore for the third quarter ended December 2011, compared to a loss of Rs 108.92 crore in the preceding quarter (Jul-Sep).
Persistent Systems gained 4% after reporting 25% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) jump in net profit at Rs 40.58 crore for the quarter ended December 2011.
Bajaj Steel hit upper circuit after reporting over five-fold jump in net profit at Rs 5.89 crore for the third quarter ended December 2011 compared to Rs 1.12 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.
Yes Bank shot up 4% as its Q3 net jumped 33% to Rs 254 crore (y-o-y).
Lupin rose 2% as net profit rose 4.92% to Rs 235.06 crore.
Idea Cellular jumped 7% extending Monday's 4% rise triggered by the company's strong Q3 December 2011 results.
Empire Industries gained 3% after net profit rose 26% to Rs 9.10 crore.
Ceat tanked 5% post disappointing performance in Q3. The company's net profit fell 57% to Rs 2.4 crore (q-o-q).
The overall market breadth in BSE ended positive with 1,592 shares advancing and 1,206 shares declining.
Explore Business Standard