Market welcomes Samvat 2068 on a positive note

Markets ended in the green after a lacklustre session on Mahurat trading day, extending Tuesday's smart gains. Sensex touched a high of 17,350 on investor optimism. But soft cues from global markets took the index to a low of 17,273 The Sensex finally ended at 17,288 - up 34 points. Nifty ended up 10 points at 5,202.

Globally markets continue to hold ground ahead of the key EU summit. US stocks are set to open marginally higher on hopes that the leaders will finally come closer to a solution for the debt-crisis. On Tuesday, the Dow ended down 1.7% at 11,706. Nasdaq slipped 2.2% to 2,638.

European bourses gained with CAC and DAX jumping 0.5% each. Analysts in Europe, however, doubt that the meeting will not bring forward a lasting plan to ease the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone.

BSE PSU Index gained 0.8% at 7,433. Capital goods and healthcare indices also moved up 0.8% each.

Banking shares, after its fall yesterday, recovered. The bankex had fallen sharply after RBI's monetary policy where the central bank had deregulated savings rate. Other rate sensitives have also advanced. However, IT shares have witnessed some weakness with the BSE IT index down 0.5% at 5,53.

The BSE bankex ended up 0.3% at 10,954. State Bank of India was the biggest gainer and ended up 1.5% at Rs 1,869. Bank Of India, Punjab National Bank, Indusind Bank and Union Bank were major banking gainers. However, ICICI Bank shed 0.7% to Rs 871.

Larsen & Toubro was the biggest contributor among Sensex stocks and ended up 1% at Rs 1,351. Hindalco, Coal India, Sterlite and Bharti Airtel moved up 1% each.

On the other hand, IT shares remained weak through out the session on the back of negative cues from US bourses. Wipro dropped 1.4% to Rs 368. Infosys slipped 0.6% at Rs 2,834.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmark today. BSE mid-cap index gained 1% to 6,182 while Small-cap index moved up 1.4% to 6,899.

Among the other stocks, Sesa Goa shed 2.5% at 206 after reporting a 99% year-on-year (y-o-y) decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1 crore for the quarter ended September 2011 as against Rs 388 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Net sales grew 14% to Rs 790 crore on y-o-y basis.

Nitin Fire Protection zoomed 6.5% to Rs 41 on back of three-fold jump in trading volumes. Engineers India gained 3.4% to Rs 244 after reporting a 22% year-on-year (y-o-y) jump in net profit at Rs 147 crore for the quarter ended September 2011, as against Rs 120 crore in the year ago period.

Indian Hotels advanced 1% to Rs 69 ahead of its results on Friday which is the next trading day. Jain Irrigation Systems jumped 6% to Rs 122 after the company fixed November 9, 2011 as record date for the purpose of issue and allotment of Differential Voting Right (DVR) bonus equity shares.

BSE market breadth was positive. Out of 2,758 stocks traded, 2,026 shares advanced while 602 shares declined.