Building up on the last two day's gains, the markets had a stellar trading session today on the back of a slew of positive bites from various quarters. Rising exports, expanding manufacturing sector growth and higher vehicle sales coupled with governement's divestment program boosted market sentiment. The Sensex closed up 329 points at 19,850. In the process, the index has surged 713 points in the last three straight sessions.
The NSE Nifty gained 98 points to close at 5,961. The broader markets too rose with the positive wave. The smallcap index gained 3% while the midcap index added 2.6%.
The onus for today's rally lies mainly with the PSU index. The shares from this segment were in limelight on the bourses after the strong response elicited by the ongoing disinvestment programme wherein the government has achieved more than 50% or Rs 23,000 crore of the total target of Rs 40,000 crore for the current fiscal.
The initial public offer of state-run manganese producer MOIL received robust response. Overall, the IPO has been subscribed more than 36 times as of 1400 hrs. Further, government's move to recapitalise nine PSU banks in the last hour of trading and proposed 10% stake dilution in Neyveli Lignite by the government further boosted the rally.
On the other hand, the metal index had been shining since the start of the trade. Today was the second consecutive day where the index moved north. The realty index also advanced 3%. The monthly sales figures from Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors helped the the auto index rally 1.4%.
The BSE Metal, PSU and Realty indices rallied over 3% each to 16,156, 9586 and 3016, respectively.
HMT and Indian Oil zoomed around 11% each to Rs 69 and Rs 384, respectively. State Transport Corporation, Hindustan Copper, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank were the other major gainers.
In the metals space, JSW Steel, National Aluminium and Jindal Steel were the major gainers.
Oribit Corporation zoomed over 8% in the realty space. It was followed by Parsvnath Developers, DB Realty, Phoenix Mills, Anant Raj Industries and HDIL.
On the economic front, the October exports numbers were very encouraging. India's merchandise exports rose by 21.3% to $18 billion in October over the year- ago period, boosting hopes that the country may be able to reach the $200 billion target fixed for the current fiscal.Imports during the period grew by 6.8 per cent to $27.68 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $9.72 billion, according to a Commerce Ministry data released here today.
India's manufacturing sector too expanded at its fastest pace in six months in November on the back of robust new business and a sharp rise in export orders, a survey showed on Wednesday.
The gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up 6% followed by Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and L&T which gained 4% - 5%
The losers on the benchmark index were Bharti Airtel and Hero Honda down 2%. Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Unilever and TCS which lost 0.07% - 1% were the other noteable losers.
The market breadth was extremely positive. 2384 stocks had advanced while 554 had declined.
