Markets close firm; Sensex adds 93 points at 18167

The markets ended the last session of the week on a positive note, spurred on by improving sentiment in global equities. The Sensex ended at 18167 stronger by 94 points and the Nifty ended at 5452, up 35 points. And continuing with their recent out-performance, the midcap index ended at 7642, higher by 74 points, and the smallcap index ended at 9710, up 64 points.

The bourses had opened firm in the absence of any negative cues from the global front. Wall Street had ended lower, albeit marginally, for a third straight day on Thursday as an unexpected rise in jobless claims and a sobering revenue outlook from Cisco underscored the hurdles to economic recovery. The Dow slipped 58 points to 10,319 and Nasdaq shed 18 points to 2,190. And Asian markets were largely in the positive.

Things only got better in noon trades, thanks to a positive close across Asia and a rebound in Europe. Asian stocks, with the exception of Hang Seng, snapped their three-day losing streak to end on a healthy note. The benchmark indices in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea ended up 0.5%-1.4%. And European shares rose in early trades as better-than-expected economic growth in Germany and France boosted investor sentiment, and with miners and oil majors rising on firmer commodity prices. The second-quarter German gross domestic product posted its biggest gain in 23 years and French growth in the same period also exceeded forecasts.

Our indices, however, came off their highs in late-noon trades as the European markets and the Dow Jones futures pared their early gains and turned flat. The closing  was still comfortably higher, though. 

All the sectoral indices ended in the green. SBI continued its good run by gaining another 2.3% at Rs 2849 to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE. The shares of India's biggest commercial bank in terms of branch network had surged nearly 7% in the previous session on strong Q1 results. DLF strengthened by 2.1% at Rs 322 and ITC  added 1.9% at Rs 156. Tata Steel spurted by 1.3% at Rs 527, albeit off its intra-day highs, on reporting a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,790 crore for the April-June quarter. The company had suffered a loss of Rs 2,238.53 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. And index heavyweight RIL gained 0.7% at Rs 979.

In the midcap space, Bombay Dyeing spurted by 11% at Rs 661, Jet Airways zoomed by 11% at Rs 729 and Info Edge gained 9% at Rs 1120. Patni Computers, Jai Corp ans United Bank of India were the other significant gainers. And in the smallcap space, Raymond was locked at the upper circuit of 20% at Rs 374, while Aqua Logistics gained 12% at Rs549 and KPIT Cummins added 11% at Rs 179.

On the other hand, Sterlite weakened by 4.2% at Rs 160, RCom lost 2.9% at Rs 168 and Reliance Infra lost 1% at Rs 1083. And Tata Motors saw some profit-booking after the stellar gains post its Q1 numbers. The auto major inched lower by 0.6% to end at Rs 1017.

The market breadth was marginally positive. Out of 3085 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1505 advancing stocks as against 1413 declines.