Mkts: Bulls lift Sensex up by 585 pts at close – 1st Feb-2008
The bulls made it to the bourses at the stroke of the opening bell this morning and despite facing strong resistance from their rivals until around noon, turned in an inspired display to drive stock prices up sharply this afternoon. A smart recovery on Wall Street and in Asian markets and the positive start on the European bourses aided the sentiment today.
So terrific was the charge that the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty kept surging higher and higher in afternoon trade. However, information technology and select auto stocks held firm other blue chips had given up their early gains amid volatile trade this morning. However, it turned out to be free ride up the charts for stocks cutting across sectors this afternoon. Even mid and smallcap stocks, which had gone down sharply earlier in the day, bounced back in a telling fashion during the closing minutes.
While the Sensex, which hit a high of 18,312.40 in late afternoon trade, ended the session at 18,233.42 with a sparkling gain of 584.71 points or 3.31%, the Nifty settled at 5317.25, a few points down from a high of 5339.95, with a handsome gain of 3.5% or 179.80 points. In intra-day trades today, the Sensex touched a low of 17,534.96. The Nifty had dropped down to 5090.75 in mid morning trade.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE IT (5.77%) was the outstanding performer today. The Tech index moved up by nearly 4% while the Auto and Metal indices surged 3.54% and 3.63% respectively. The PSU, FMCG, and Oil & Gas barometers ended stronger by 2.47%, 2.69% and 2.82% respectively. The Bankex advanced by 1.91% while the Power and Healthcare indices firmed up by 2.47% and 1.06% respectively.
The Capital Goods index gained a modest 0.31% while the Consumer Durables and Realty indices finished marginally behind their previous closing levels.
The market breadth, despite several stocks recording a smart turnaround, was weak when trade ended for the day. Out of 2795 stocks traded on BSE today, 1613 stocks ended weak. 1114 stocks closed with gains and 68 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.
Except cement stocks ACC (down 3.7%) and Ambuja Cements (down 0.75%) and private sector bank major HDFC Bank (down marginally), all other Sensex components ended in the positive territory today.
IT stocks Satyam Computer Services (8.2%); Tata Consultancy Services (6.2%), Infosys Technologies (5.8%) and Wipro (5.8%) were in demand right through the session today.
Automobile stocks Tata Motors (6.85%), Maruti Suzuki (6.6%) and Bajaj Auto (4%) closed on a high note. Metal stocks Hindalco and Tata Steel shot up by 6.75% and 5.9% respectively. PSU oil & gas exploration major ONGC recorded a handsome gain of 5.7%. Housing finance stock HDFC gained nearly 5.5%. Telecom stock Bharti Airtel moved up by a little over 5%. Reliance Communications gained 1.7%.
ICICI Bank (4.55%), ITC (4.95%), Reliance Industries (2.55%), Cipla (4.15%), NTPC (3.85%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (2.45%) and Grasim Industries (2%) also had a profitable outing. State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Energy gained more than a percent. Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever chipped in with modest gains while BHEL and DLF finished marginally higher than their previous closing levels.
HCL Technologies, the biggest gainer in the Nifty, moved up by over 10%. Sterlite Industries gained 9.5%. BPCL rallied 6.8%. Reliance Petroleum, Tata Power, Cairn India, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Suzlon Energy, GAIL India, ABB and VSNL ended with strong gains.
Nalco, Zee Entertainment, Siemens, Unitech, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Idea Cellular and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories closed with sharp losses.
Future Capital Holdings made a modest debut today. On the National Stock Exchange, the stock ended at Rs 909.80, a premium of nearly 19% to the IPO price of Rs 765. Around 12.54 million shares were transacted at the Future Capital Holdings counter on NSE today.
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