Sensex ends above 20,000; RIL surges 5.3 percent

By Abhishek Vishnoi

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose more than 1 percent on Monday to mark its second consecutive session of gains as Reliance Industries surged after a significant gas discovery, while Sun Pharma rose ahead of its quarterly earnings.

Benchmark stock indexes are recovering after posting their first weekly fall in six last week, but analysts remain wary about flows after foreign institutional investors sold 2.38 billion rupees of stocks on Friday, snapping a record streak of 26 consecutive sessions of net purchases.

A mixed Jan-March earnings season so far and more expensive valuations for domestic shares are also making shares vulnerable in the short term, analysts added.

 

Investors will now be watching January-March economic growth data due this week, which will show whether the economy has gained some traction on the government's reform moves and the central bank's rate cuts.

"GDP data is very important but it is not expected to be good. One has to wait and see if market discounts it on premise of being historical data," said Aneesh Srivastava, chief investment officer, who oversees 30 billion rupees in capital markets for IDBI Federal Life Insurance.

Japanese interest rates, U.S. dollar, and the Fed's follow-through on quantitive easing should be things to watch gloablly, added Srivastava.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 1.66 percent, or 326.44 points, to end at 20,030.77, marking its biggest daily percentage gain since May 15.

The broader Nifty rose 1.66 percent, or 99.60 points, to end at 6,083.15, closing above the psychologically important 6,000 level.

Shares in Reliance Industries Ltd rose 5.2 percent after the conglomerate and its partners said they had made a significant gas discovery in the KG-D6 block off India's east coast.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd rose 4.6 percent a day ahead of its Jan-March results, while Coal India Ltd shares gained 1.2 percent ahead of its March-quarter earnings later in the day.

AstraZeneca Pharma jumped 16 percent, a day before promoters are due to sell 3.7 million shares in the drug maker.

Titan Industries Ltd rose 4.5 percent after Bank of America Merrill Lynch initiated coverage on with a "buy" rating, citing Titan's dominant market share in jewellery and watches, the bottoming out of discretionary spending, and a potential increase in dividend payout.

However among stocks that fell, Crompton Greaves Ltd declined 2.3 percent after the company said its Jan-March net profit fell 75 percent, missing forecasts according to analysts.

Jet Airways fell 2.5 percent and its smaller rival SpiceJet declined 4.9 percent after reporting quarterly losses on Friday as fare increases were not sufficient to cover high costs of operations.

(Editing by Sunil Nair)