Sensex stages a smart recovery, ends 32 pts up : Sify

Sensex stages a smart recovery, ends 32 pts up

After opening on a weak note this morning and remaining in the red for a long time, the market staged a smart recovery in late afternoon trade to end on a positive note today thanks to heavy buying in auto, bank and IT stocks. Reports of a near normal monsoon aided the sentiment to an extent.

While the 30 share BSE sensitive index Sensex ended the day with a gain of 31.87 points or 0.22% at 14,482.22, the broader 50 stock Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange settled with a small gain of 2.15 points at 4337.50. Earlier, after opening at 14,338.27, the Sensex had tumbled to 14,286.38 in morning trade.

A weak close on Wall Street, a negative trend on the Asian bourses and a jump in oil prices had triggered heavy selling in morning trade today. Information technology stocks surged higher following Infosys Technologies making the biggest ever overseas acquisition by the Indian IT sector.

Though the bellwether stock remained subdued for a better part of the session - in fact it ended with a loss of 0.3% today - other IT majors Satyam Computer Services (3.25%), Wipro (2.15%) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.8%) signed off on a firm note.

But it was bank stock HDFC Bank, which topped the list of gainers from the Sensex today. The private sector bank major ended stronger by nearly 4%. BHEL gained nearly 2%. Mahindra & Mahindra also ended with a gain of close to 2%.

Reliance Infrastructure, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, State Bank of India and Hindalco gained 1% - 1.75%. ACC, Tata Power, NTPC, DLF, Larsen & Toubro and ONGC ended with modest gains.

Reliance Industries (down 2.3%) remained weak right through the session today. Jaiprakash Associates lost 1.85%. Tata Steel declined by 1.35%. HDFC, Reliance Communications, Sterlite Industries and Bharti Airtel lost 0.4% - 0.8%. Tata Motors and Grasim Industries posted marginal losses.

Suzlon Energy (down 4.25%) was the most prominent loser in the Nifty index. Zee Entertainment, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ABB and Idea Cellular also declined sharply.
HCL Technologies, Punjab National Bank, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Cipla, GAIL India, Reliance Petroleum and Siemens ended with sharp to moderate gains.

Bosch vaulted 13.65% on a share buy-back proposal. Max India jumped nearly 7%. Phoenix Mills gained 5.7%. Piramal Healthcare, KSK Energy, IFCI, Punjab Lloyd, IRB Infrastructure, Bajaj Holdings, REI Agro, Bank of Baroda, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Bank, Reliance Capital, UCO Bank and Crompton Greaves gained in strength.

Among midcap stocks, FSL zoomed nearly 23%. Motherson Sumi ended with a hefty gain of 9.8%. Sun Pharma Advanced Research, Apollo Tyre, IndusInd Bank, BF Utilities, Zee News, Torrent Pharma, KEC International, 3i Infotech, NIIT, Provogue and Shristi Infrastructure also ended on a firm note.

As the focus was on large cap stocks today, not many stocks from midcap and smallcap segments made it to the positive territory. The market breadth was negative. Out of 2692 stocks traded on BSE, 1199 stocks closed with gains. 1389 stocks posted losses and 104 stocks ended flat.

Source:Sify India.