Markets are expected to end on an upbeat note following positive news of Greece bail out by European Union and gains in banking shares after Axis Bank reported upbeat results.
The Nifty index opened in the green at 5,577 and moved steadily higher underpinned by rally in front-line banking stocks-Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank. The index touched a high of 5,639 in the afternoon session and continued to hover near day’s high at 5,631, up 90 points and the benchmark Sensex rallied 275 points, at 18,709 at 14:40 hrs.
The second bail out by European Union of Greece at $1.57 billion pepped up risk appetitive for equities and indices across Asia notched over 1% gains. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average gained 1.2%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 2.1% and China’s Shanghai Composite surged 0.2%.
Investors cashed in on banking shares after Axis Bank reported a growth of 26.93% in net profit to Rs 942 crore as compared to Rs 742 crore in the same quarter last fiscal year. Net interest Income was posted at Rs 1,724.1 crore. The stock rallied 5% to 1,307. Analysts said that some of the stocks might be factoring in a pause in tightening cycle next week. Other gains were Union Bank, up 3.7%, Yes Bank, up 3.4% and ICICI Bank, up 2.1%.
Among individual stocks Bharti Airtel rallied 3.8% to Rs 410 on reports that call tariffs were hiked by 20% to 1.2 paise from 1 paise per second in some circles.
Reliance Industries advanced 1.5%, Infosys zoomed 2.5% and ICICI Bank gained 2.1% were the top gainers on Sensex, they contributed over 110 points to the Sensex. Only three components on the Sensex were trading in the red. DLF was the top loser, down 1.1%, Hindalco Industries slipped 0.6% and Jindal Steel was off 0.1%.
