The benchmark Sensex registered its highest gain in the current calendar year, up 412.86 points, on the back of all-round buying triggered by stronger global cues, despite sustained capital outflows.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share index opened firm and remained in positive terrain throughout the session to settle the day at 8,756.61, a rise of 4.95 per cent over the previous close.
Before this, the Sensex had risen by 492.28 points, or 5.37 per cent, on December 10, 2008. The broad-based 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also improved further by 101.80 points, or 3.89 per cent, to 2,719.25, from its last close.
| CHEERING UP | ||
| Price (Rs) | % Chg* | |
| Top Sensex Gainers | ||
| DLF | 152.55 | 11.47 |
| Tata Motors | 161.60 | 10.72 |
| Tata Power | 662.85 | 9.18 |
| ICICI Bank | 308.70 | 8.60 |
| Hindalco | 42.55 | 7.99 |
| Sterlite Ind | 283.00 | 7.93 |
| HDFC | 1380.05 | 7.53 |
| Tata Steel | 166.70 | 6.89 |
| Larsen & Toubro | 614.95 | 6.76 |
| Reliance Ind | 1282.35 | 6.69 |
| Sensex Losers | ||
| NTPC | 170.20 | -2.04 |
| Sun Pharma | 1021.80 | -0.36 |
| * over previous close | ||
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned buyers after consistent selling for over a month. On Friday, they bought shares worth Rs 299.24 crore and domestic funds pumped in Rs 392.69 crore, according to provisional figures from the stock exchange.
Friday’s rally was partly the result of positive remarks by chiefs of Bank of America, Citi and JP Morgan on their profitability, which has sparked a rally in global markets over the past few days.
|
% Chg^ | |
| Dow Jones* | 3.46 |
| FTSE 100# | 2.46 |
| Nikkei 225 | 5.15 |
| Hang Seng | 4.37 |
| * as on March 12, 2009; # till 1730hrs (IST), ^ over previous close | |
Samir Arora, fund manager of Singapore-based Helios Capital, said: “Internationally, the equity markets had priced bank stocks by taking into consideration that many of them were moving towards bankruptcy. However, when top banks like Citibank and Bank of America declared that they are back in profits in the last two months, it has provided great relief to the financial sector.”
Gul Tekchandani, investment consultant, said: “Our oversold markets were waiting for a trigger, which was provided by the foreign developments.” According to him, though India has not seen bailouts and failure of institutions unlike the US, the domestic markets have suffered largely from poor sentiment.
All sectoral indices were up on Friday. The realty index was up 7.57 per cent, followed by metals (6.26), bankex (5.85) and information technology (5.63).
Market breadth was positive, with 1,583 counters registering gains and 854 ending with losses. Business volumes improved to Rs 3,230.11 crore from Rs 2,726.77 crore on Thursday. However, trading volumes were relatively low at 266.1 million shares.
ICICI Bank was the top-traded share with the highest turnover of Rs 253.55 crore, followed by Akruti (Rs 192.74 crore), RIL (Rs 180.72 crore), Educomp Sol (Rs 168.86 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 122.28 crore).
