Sensex reverses five-day losing streak

RBI's policy to increase rates moderately gets a thumbs up, however markets fails to hold on to gains.


Markets today opened in the green on positive cues from Asian markets. After some initial volatility, the Sensex surged to a high of 17,560 -  up 160 points as the Reserve Bank of India annunced a moderate hike across the board.

The Sensex however pared some of its gains as volatility returned to the fore. IT stocks dragged the markets further. The index finally ended (provisional) at 17,461 - up 60 points.

The Nifty ended (provisional) at 5,230 - up 26 points.

The central bank today hiked short-term lending and borrowing rates and the portion of money banks deposit with it by 25 basis points each, in a move aimed at controlling the inflation spiral without choking growth.

However, rate sensitive sectors gained on RBI's move. The BSE realty index erased all early gains and ended up 3% at 3,567. The Bankex jumped 1.5 % to 10,680. PSU and auto indices were also in green. However, the IT index was in red and ended at 5,367 - down 1.2%.

SBI surged 3.2% to Rs 2,098. ICICI Bank gained 1.5% at Rs 934.

Realty stocks ruled the roost. DLF jumped 3% to Rs 326. Reliance Infrastructure added 2.6% to Rs 1,117.

Tata Motors moved up 2% to Rs 792. Other auto stocks- Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra advanced 1.5% each.

Sun Pharma was up 2% at Rs 1,799.  Hindalco, Grasim, Hindustan Unilever, BHEL, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Communications were the other gainers.

However, TCS dropped 2.7% in spite of a good Q4 result to Rs 790.

Hero Honda shed 2.3% to Rs 1,851.

Wipro and Infosys declined 1% each to Rs 694 and Rs 2,725, respectively.

The BSE market breadth was positive. Out of 2,967 stocks traded, 2,087 advanced while 782 declined.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

SBI topped the value chart on the BSE witha  turnover of Rs 149.75 cr, followed by Unitech (Rs 119.57 cr), Tata Steel (Rs 89.16 cr), Reliance (Rs 81.26 cr) and ICICI Bank (Rs 78.93 cr).

The volume chart was led by FCS Software with trades of 30.42 million shares, followed by Unitech (14.56 million), DCB (8.39 million) and Birla Power (7.30 million).