26th of Aug 09
The positive close on Wall Street overnight on the back of some encouraging economic data and the resultant surge in Asian markets buoyed up stock prices on the major Indian bourses this morning. Though it moved in tight band for the next two hours and very nearly slipped into the red a little past noon after the latest data from the government revealed a slowdown in infrastructure growth.
However, the market bounced back and closed on a firm note today thanks to hectic buying in information technology majors and a few old economy stocks. European markets were struggling today and most of the Asian markets settled off their highs but the bulls stayed put and kept lapping up stocks on hopes economic reforms will significantly boost growth. Some short-covering ahead of derivatives expiry too contributed to the positive close.
The Sensex, which rose to 15,831.49 in afternoon trade, ended the day with a gain of 81.38 points or 0.52% at 15,769.85, while the Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange closed at 4680.85, netting a gain of 21.50 points or 0.46%.
Amid hopes the world's largest economy will be back on track soon, participants picked up information technology stocks with renewed vigour. Mirroring sharp gains posted by sector heavyweights, the BSE IT index moved up by 3.35% today. BSE Teck ended stronger by around 2.5%.
Select realty, pharma, power, oil and metal stocks ended on a firm note. There were gains for a few capital goods stocks as well. Auto, bank, consumer durables and FMCG stocks remained quite subdued today.
Several midcap and smallcap stocks rallied sharply and ended with notable gains. The BSE Midcap index advanced by 1.1%, while the Smallcap barometer ended nearly 2% up over its previous closing mark.
IT bellwether Infosys Technologies, which ended stronger by over 4%, was the top gainer in the Sensex today. Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro moved up by 3.75% and 2.35% respectively.
Sterlite Industries ended nearly 4% up. Reliance Communications, Tata Motors, Tata Power, DLF, Sun Pharmaceuticals and ACC gained 1% - 2%. Reliance Industries, Reliance Infrastructure, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Jaiprakash Associates and ICICI Bank posted modest gains.
Tata Communications, Axis Bank, Suzlon Energy, Reliance Capital, Reliance Power, Unitech, Nalco and Ambuja Cements were among the prominent gainers in the Nifty index.
Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank, Hero Honda, Grasim Industries, Maruti Suzuki, ITC and ONGC ended with sharp losses. Jindal Steel, Ranbaxy Laboratories, HCL Technologies and GAIL India lost 1.5% - 3%.
Aban Offshore soared to Rs 1565 and signed off with a hefty gain of nearly 27% at Rs 1536.35. The counted attracted heavy buying today on big order wins. On Monday, the company had informed that a contract has been signed for the deployment of 3 newbuild jack-up rigs in the Middle East for a period of 3 years each. The firm will generate a revenue of around Rs 2925 crores from this contract.
Further, a contract has also been signed for the deployment of a newbuild jack-up rig in Latin America for a period of 25.5 months and the estimated revenues from this contract is said to be around Rs 446 crores. The Aban Offshore counter on the National Stock Exchange clocked a volume of around 11.63 million shares today. The stock topped the turnover chart as well, recording Rs 1,717.57 crore for the session.
Reliance Natural Resources (up 9.5% to Rs 89.25) also moved up on strong volumes. HDIL (1.5%) and Satyam Computer Services (2.2%) also ended up on strong volumes.
The market breadth was strong today. Out of 2687 stocks traded on BSE, 1943 stocks closed higher. 851 stocks declined and 73 stocks ended flat.
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