Sensex up 71 on exit polls

Bank, PSU scrips in limelight.

Scrips of public sector undertakings (PSUs) and banks were in the limelight on Thursday on the bourses, as the latest exit polls suggested the NDA government may get a clear majority.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex gained for the third straight session, to close at 5757.30, up 1.25 per cent (71.11 points) over Wednesday's close.

The consumer durables sector was the largest gainer on the BSE, up 2.95 per cent while the BSE PSU index was up 1.98 per cent and the index of bank stocks, the Bankex gained 1.86 per cent.

Hindalco was the largest gainer in the Sensex basket, up 4.45 per cent to Rs 1,144.90 followed by Grasim which closed at Rs 1,232.05, gaining 3.77 per cent over its previous close.

Cipla was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, down 1.56 per cent to Rs 1352.60. PSU stock BHEL fell 1.25 per cent to Rs 578.95 and Wipro was down 0.77 per cent to Rs 1,592.90.

HPCL was up 1.81 per cent to Rs 471.80, ONGC gained 1.70 per cent to Rs 862.15 and MTNL saw its scrip price going up by 1.69 per cent to Rs 150.85.

Dharmesh Mehta, head of broking at Enam Securities said, "The mood in the market is positive as hopes grow of the BJP-led NDA coming back to power and heading a stable government."

After three days of sustained gains, the market capitalisation of stocks listed on the BSE has recovered by 4.4 per cent (Rs 53,260 crore) from Rs 12,05,889 crore on May 3 "" after the second round of exit polls "" to Rs 12,59,147 crore yesterday.

Out of 2,300 traded stocks on the bourses, nearly 70 per cent (1,625 stocks) have gained at the end of the three-day winning streak, while 433 stocks have reported declines in prices and the rest have remained unchanged.

The breadth of the market was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 1304:498 on the BSE. Of the 30 scrips in the Sensex basket, 24 scrips closed the day with gains.

But traded volumes have been low on the bourses, with the cash market turnover at Rs 2,179.86 crore on the BSE and Rs 4,512.62 crore on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Heavyweights Reliance Industries gained 2.05 per cent to Rs 540.70, SBI was up 2.04 per cent to Rs 655.70 and HLL was up 1.99 per cent to Rs 145.75.

Tata Steel was up 3.18 per cent to Rs 366.30 and Tata Power gained 2.19 per cent to Rs 390.05. Hero Honda was up 2.33 per cent to Rs 492.25 and Tata Motors gained 0.49 per cent to Rs 484.55.

L&T gained 2.11 per cent to Rs 595.70, Gujarat Ambuja Cements was up 1.89 per cent to Rs 345.50. Satyam Computers was up 1.26 per cent to Rs 329.05 and tech bellwether Infosys Technologies was up 0.75 per cent to Rs 5299.90. Dr Reddy's Labs was up 1.27 per cent to Rs 886.50 and Ranbaxy gained 0.80 per cent to Rs 1048.45.

In the last three days, stocks of refineries, banks, information technology companies and of diversified companies have emgerged as the major gainers.

The market cap of refinery stocks increased by Rs 10,866 crore, followed by banks (Rs 8,211 crore), information technology (Rs 3,744 crore) and diversified companies (Rs 2,981 crore).

ONGC leads the list of individual gainers with Rs 6,260 crore market cap gain in the last three days, followed by Indian Oil corporation (Rs 2,453 crore), State Bank of India (Rs 1,960 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 1,733 crore), Bharti Tele-Ventures (Rs 1,436 crore), GAIL (Rs 1,264 crore), SAIL (Rs 1,218 crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs 1,137 crore), HPCL (Rs 1,069 crore) and Bank of Baroda (Rs 1,021 crore).

However, during the same period the market cap of ICICI Bank declined by Rs 656 crore, of ITC by Rs 623 crore, Nestle India (Rs 373 crore) and Cipla (Rs 274 crore).