FM-speak, US data lift Sensex 520 pts

Realty, banking stocks lead the rally

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement that he would get bankers committed to a "more benign plan of action", and improving consumer confidence in the US lifted market sentiments today.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index, or Sensex, rose sharply, led by realty and banking stocks.

The markets opened in the green in the morning session on the back of the optimistic consumer confidence data from the US. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P had closed higher by 2.4 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively. The Nasdaq soared 3.4 per cent.

Hang Seng was the top gainer in Asia, rising 5.26 per cent because of a stimulus package of $2.2 billion announced by the government. The other major indices were up between 1.37 and 3.10 per cent.

The Sensex rose 520.41, or 3.8 per cent, to 14,109.64, the biggest gain since May 18. The S&P CNX Nifty added 3.9 per cent to 4,276.05.

Sanjay Sinha, chief executive officer at DBS Chola Mutual Fund, said the markets were looking forward to the Budget and the first 100-day plan of action. If the policy moves lived up to the expectations, there would be huge inflow of money from foreign as well as domestic mutual funds, he said.

According to provisional data from the BSE, domestic institutional investors were net buyers of Rs 685.64 crore. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs 369.80 crore.

Market breadth indicated a strong trend as 82.58 per cent, or 2,346 stocks, advanced against declines of 16.16 per cent, or 459 stocks on BSE.

All the sectoral indices were up.
 

	Price (Rs)	% Chg*
TOP GAINERS
Reliance Infra	1288.2	14.72
Sterlite Ind	591.15	9.49
ONGC	1107.85	9.42
DLF	365.5	8.49
Grasim Ind	2247.3	7.27
Ranbaxy Labs	261.85	7.14
ICICI Bank	710.55	6.59
Jaiprakash Asso	190.3	6.58
SBI	1790.55	6.08
Tata Motors	343.55	5.55
TOP LOSERES
Bharti Airtel	768.9	-0.19
ITC	183.85	-0.19
ACC	709.05	-0.16

 

	% Chg*
OTHER MARKETS
ASIA
Hang Seng	5.26
Nikkei 225	1.37
Straits Times	3.01
AMERICA
Nasdaq	-0.60
Dow Jones	-1.41
EUROPE
FTSE 100	0.10
# till 1200 hrs (IST)

“Another major reason for today's rally was also the short-covering that took place ahead of the May expiry,” said Alex Mathew, research head at Geojit BNP Paribas Securities.

Mathews said that there was a strong support for the Nifty 4,251 and 4,207 points while there was resistance at 4,319 and 4,362 levels.