The turmoil in Europe, which left our markets battered and bruised, seems to have subsided atleast momentarily. In a welcome departure from their recent battering, green was splashed across the European screens in early trades and this had the desired effect on sentiment back home. After falling 467 points on the previous day and as much as 1500 points since the beginning of the present corrective phase, the Sensex gained 111 points at 16519 and the Nifty added 27 points at 4947.
Numbers can be deceptive though. And so it has been with the closing market rates as they conceal an undercurrent of volatility that marked the day's proceedings. While strength was on display throughout the day, it was by no means a smooth ride. For the markets pulled back sharply from intra-day highs on atleast two occasions before the bulls were able to have their way.
The FTSE, CAC and DAX added around a percent each in a modest bargain-hunting rally after 6he 3% drop of the previous day.
Meanwhile, food inflation rose by 0.05 per cent to 16.49 per cent for the week ended May 8, from 16.44 per cent in the previous week, mainly due to high prices of vegetables and fruits. But the prices of non-food articles declined by 0.35 per cent as raw rubber prices sank 7 per cent and linseed fell 2 per cent and fuel prices remained steady over the week, but rose 12.33 per cent on an annual basis.
ONGC galloped 8% at Rs 1118 and and Oil India Limited spurted 4% at Rs 325 after the Union Cabinet effected an increase of over 113% in the prices of natural gas produced by the two public sector companies. Sterlite gained 2.3% at Rs 652 and SBI added 2.1% at Rs 2263.
And banking stocks gained post the announcement of the food inflation numbers. SBI strengthened by 2.1% at Rs 2263 and ICICI Bank added 1% at Rs 833.
Telecom stocks had gained in early trades as the auction of 3G spectrum ended on Wednesday, only to pare their gains and end mixed. Bharti Airtel added 0.2% at Rs 260 and Idea Cellular strengthened by 0.9% at Rs 53 and MTNL gained 0.5% at Rs 56, while Reliance Communications shed 0.7% to end at Rs 135.
The realty space extended its recent losses, shaving off another 2% to end at 3049. HDIL tanked 4.7% at Rs 219, DLF weakened by 2.8% at Rs 271 and Unitech shed 1.9% at Rs 70. The index has shed 37% from a high of 4846 seen last October.
Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) had a dismal start on the bourses. The debutant ended at Rs 25 against its issue price of Rs 26 on the National Stock Exchange, which amounted to a discount of 4%.
And RIL surrendered its intra-day gains to end flat at Rs 999. Cyclone Laila which has claimed 12 lives in coastal Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu thus far, forced the energy major to suspend all operations in the Krishna Godavari D6 block.
The market breadth turned negative at close. Out of 2926 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1141 advancing stocks as against 1668 declines.
Tata Steel topped the value charts on the BSE with a total turnover of Rs 156.88 crore. This was followed by SBI (Rs 103.32 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 100.40 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 97.05 crore) and Sterlite (Rs 91.86 crore).
Jaiprakash Associates led the volume charts with trades of 3.42 million. It was followed by Tata Steel (3.05 million), DLF (1.63 million), Hindalco (1.57 million) and Sterlite (1.42 million).
