Value buying in pivotals

STOCKS REPORT

Lack of selling pressure helped the market post gains on Wednesday. Select value buying in frontline and mid-cap counters helped the market trade in the positive territory the entire session, after the last few sessions had seen volatility.

The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex closed higher as investors bought consumer durables, capital goods, banking and oil counters, which were among the biggest gainers on Wednesday. Select pharma counters closed lower on selling pressure.

In the BSE Sensex basket, 21 out of the 30 scrips closed higher. The breadth of the market was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 3:1.

Vijay Bhambwani, CEO at BSPLIndia said, "The derivatives data available for the previous session indicates a one per cent increase in the open interest "" signaling a higher risk appetite amongst the bulls. The indices have surged and closed at near the intraday highs with encouraging volumes. That shows a short term breakout above the minor congestion levels of 2064 & 6565 on the Nifty and Sensex respectively. As long as the indices stay above these levels, expect the bullish trend to continue."

The immediate resistance will be at the 2084 and the 6640 levels on an intraday basis. The support at the downsides will be at the 2054 and the 6555 levels on an intraday basis, he added.

Strong buying support from foreign funds in the last few sessions has helped the market record a strong rally but the undertone of the market appeared cautious, brokers said.

The BSE Sensex hit a high of 6613.54 and a low of 6553.40 in intra-day trades, before closing at 6593.53, up 48.76 points (0.75 per cent) from Tuesday's close.

Volumes were higher than on Tuesday in the cash segment of the bourses; the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 2572.63 crore and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 5139.29 crore.

HPCL was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, rising 4.48 per cent to close at Rs 372.25, followed by Maruti Udyog, up 4.46 per cent to Rs 487.90, HDFC Bank gained 3.12 per cent toi Rs 588.05, Zee Telefilms was up 3.07 per cent to Rs 156.20 and L&T gained 2.90 per cent to Rs 996.15.

Bharti Tele-Ventures was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, falling 2.54 per cent to Rs 209.40, followed by Ranbaxy Labs, down 0.89 per cent to Rs 1041, Tata Power fell 0.58 per cent to Rs 391.60, Hindalco was down 0.48 per cent to Rs 1376.75 and HDFC fell 0.32 per ecnt to Rs 813.90.