Sensex gains 41pts on fifth day of rise; Greek debt talks eyed

In a volatile session, the benchmark Sensex today surged 230 points in early trade but pared most gains to end with a slender 41 points rise on selling in banking, pharma and oil&gas shares and caution ahead of crucial Greek debt talks.
Nevertheless, domestic markets extended their winning session to fifth day and the Sensex closed at two-week highs. The NSE Nifty moved up by 3.85 points to finish at 8,809.35.
Stocks of FMCG major ITC Ltd gained the most among index constituents by rising 3 per cent. Others which supported the indices to close in positive zone included HDFC, TCS and Tata Motors with 1.5-2 per cent rise.

Expectations of pro-growth Budget and hopes of more interest rate cuts supported markets after WPI inflation in January turned negative for the second time in 3 months.
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 BSE Sensex resumed higher at 29,170.77 and firmed up further to 29,325.35 before ending at 29,135.88, showing a gain of 40.95 points or 0.14 per cent. The index has gained 908.49 points or 3.22 per cent in five days.

Oil stocks were down as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may look at re-imposing 5 percent customs duty on crude oil imports to shore up revenues.
On the earnings Front, shares of Sun Pharma slipped over 2 per cent after its December quarter profit declined.
Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net Rs 390.26 crore as per provisional data.
Asian markets today mostly closed up while Europe was showing signs of nervousness ahead of Greek debt talks.