Markets Up by About 6% At Close

Stocks cutting across sectors had one of their brightest outings in recent months as the bulls who thronged the major Indian bourses right at the stroke of the opening bell had their way till the very end of the session today.

A sharp upward revision in offer price for Bear Stearns buoyed up Wall Street yesterday and set the ball rolling in favour of the bulls today. Buying remained so strong and sustained that the market was moving in just one direction, up north, today. The sentiment was so upbeat that mid and smallcap stocks, which had taken a severe hammering in recent sessions, were also seen attracting strong buying enquiries.

While the Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of nearly 325 points at 15,612.61 and zoomed to a high of 16,262.38 in intra-day trades, ended at 16,217.49 with a thumping gain of 928.09 points or 6.07%, the Nifty recorded a whopping gain of 267.65 points or 5.81% as it settled at 4877.50. In intra-day trades today, the Nifty hit a high of 4896.80. It is the BSE barometer's second biggest single session gain ever. The biggest single day gain of 1139.92 points was recorded on January 25, 2008.

A fair amount of short-covering in the derivatives segment also contributed to the market's sharp upmove today. Thanks to widespread buying, all the sectoral indices ended with impressive gains. The Realty index which gained the most, went up by 9.48%. The Bankex and Consumer Durables indices gained more than 8%. The IT flared up by 7.73%. The Power, Metal, Teck, Oil & Gas, PSU, Capital Goods and Auto indices advanced by 4% - 6.5% while the Healthcare and FMCG indices firmed up by 2.36% and 2.14% respectively. The BSE Midcap spurted 6.36% while the Smallcap index posted a gain of 4.81%.

The market breadth remained pretty strong. Out of a total of 2762 stocks traded on BSE, 2074 stocks ended with gains. 641 stocks posted losses and 47 stocks ended at their previous closing levels. None of the Sensex components strayed into the red today. Sun Pharmaceuticals, the lone loser among Nifty stocks, ended lower by 2.15% at Rs 1252.80.

Jaiprakash Associates, the biggest gainer in the Sensex, shot up by 16.4%. DLF vaulted 13.5%. Reliance Energy powered its way up by nearly 13%. IT bellwether Infosys Technologies (9.65%), ICICI Bank (9.4%), Wipro (9.05%), HDFC (8.65%), BHEL (7.55%), ONGC (7.25%), Tata Steel (7%), Tata Consultancy Services (6.4%), Hindalco (6.05%) and HDFC Bank (6.05%) ended with hefty gains. Reliance Communications, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer Services, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki and Larsen & Toubro gained 4% - 6%. ACC, Grasim Industries, Cipla, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Tata Motors moved up by 1% - 3%. Ambuja Cements and ITC missed out on the rally and settled marginally higher than their previous closing levels.

Unitech recorded a big gain of 10.25%. SAIL moved up by 7.2%. Cairn India, Tata Power, Tata Communications, Punjab National Bank, Reliance Petroleum, Hero Honda, ABB, Siemens, HCL Technologies, GAIL India, Power Grid, Idea Cellular, Zee Entertainment and Sterlite Industries notched up 3% - 7%. Nalco, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Suzlon Energy and BPCL also finished on a high note. Reliance Capital jumped by 17.25% to Rs 1324.25 on strong volumes. Reliance Natural Resources (6.65%) and Essar Oil (12.9%) also attracted strong buying enquiries today.

Source: Sify