There was no let-up in buying activity, atleast as far as the benchmark were concerned. The market had scaled the 19k peak in the previous session on the back of robust industrial production numbers and an easy Basel 3 regime. And the buoyancy spilled over into the current session, with the Sensex jumping 138 points at 19346 and the Nifty gaining 35 points at 5795.
But the broader markets laid low for the second consecutive day. The midcap index shed 51 points at 8061 and the smallcap index lost 76 points at 10,195. And the market breath was distinctly weak despite the upmove, with the declining stocks outnumbering the advances in the ratio of 2:1. The selective rally may not be such a bad thing though; money is chasing quality largecaps and retail frenzy is still conspicious by its absence.
World stocks touched more than 4-month highs this morning as investors continued to recover from their summer concerns about a slowing global economy. MSCI's all-country world stock index hit a high of 298.50, the highest level since May 5. But the Asian markets finally had a mixed closing due to concerns about the sustainability of the rally. The Hang Seng added 37 points, while the Nikkei shed 22 points at close. And Europe turned cautious ahead of the retail sales data from Germany and the United States. The CAC, FTSE and DAX had edged lower in mid-day trades.
Meanwhile, the wholesale price index (WPI) inflation rose 8.5% annually in August based on a new data series, its second straight month of decline. Under the old series, August inflation was 9.5%. Inflationary pressures remain and the central bank will take appropriate steps at the appropriate time, according to the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
IT stocks came back in the reckoning after the recent strong economic data in US and Asia helped soothe worries over the global economic recovery. Wipro jumped by 3.6% at Rs 417, TCS gained 1.6% at Rs 894 and Infosys added 1.3% at Rs 2975. Tata Motors gained 2.7% to end at an all-time high of Rs 1054, boosted by strong investor confidence in the auto sector. And banking, with the exception of SBI, extended their upmove. HDFC Bank gained 2.3% at Rs 2335, HDFC added 1.2% at Rs 672 and ICICI Bank added 0.2% at Rs 1100.
On the other hand, metal shares succumbed to profit-booking after the gains registered in the recent past. Hindalco shaved off 1.9% at Rs 186 to emerge as the top loser on the BSE. Tata Steel shed 0.7% at Rs 596 and Jindal Steel lost 0.6% at Rs 712. SBI also lost some ground after touching a lifetime high in the previous session. The banking heavyweight ended the session lower by 1% at Rs 3113. And RIL failed to build on the gains of the past two days. The index bellwether fell short of the four-figuire mark to end at Rs 987, down 0.4%, after surging 3.58% on Monday.