Sensex ekes out 41-pt gain in fifth day of rise; Greece eyed

After surging over 200 points in early trade, the benchmark Sensex pared some gains on caution ahead of crucial Greek debt talks and ended with a slender 41-point rise at two-week high of 29,135.88 today.
Expectations of pro-growth Budget and hopes of more interest rate cuts supported markets, brokers said.
Globally, all eyes are Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Monday meeting his counterparts from the Eurozone in Brussels to seek their backing for an overhaul of the austerity-laden bailout.
Global markets are hoping a deal can be reached before the end of the month, when Greece's bailout is due to expire. Failure to agree an extension would see it default on its giant debts and likely mean it would crash out of Eurozone.

The 30-share Sensex hit a session high of 29,325.35 in the first half but succumbed to profit-booking at fag-end and slipped into the negative zone as it hit a low of 29,083.40.
However, gains in FMCG, auto and power shares helped the index settle with a rise of 40.95 points, or 0.14 per cent, at 29,135.88. The gauge has now gathered over 908 points in the five straight sessions.

Also, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty edged up by 3.85 points, or 0.04 per cent, to end at 8,809.35. Intra-day, it shuttled between 8,793.40 and 8,870.10.
During the day, government data showed Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation for January declined to a five and a half year low of (-) 0.39 per cent.

Stocks of FMCG major ITC Ltd gained the most among Sensex constituents by rising 3.11 per cent. Its peer, Hindustan Unilever also notched up a rise of 1.62 per cent.
Others which supported the indices to close in positive zone included TCS, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Ltd, Cipla, Dr Reddy, GAIL, HDFC Bank, M&M, NTPC, ONGC, Tata Steel and Tata Motors.
Sun Pharma, however, suffered the most by falling 2.65 per cent after company reported a 6.92 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December.
Sectorally, the BSE FMCG index gained the most by surging 1.79 per cent, Realty gained 0.97 per cent, Power by 0.61 per cent, Auto by 0.45 per cent, Capital Goods by 0.18 per cent and IT by 0.17 per cent.

Markets are closed tomorrow on account of Mahashivratri.