Markets close higher, Sensex up 75 pts

The markets closed for the day in the positive after swinging between the red and the green. The Sensex was up 75 points at 18,495 and the Nifty added 24 points to close at 5,556. The broader markets, on the other hand, had a good day outperforming the Sensex with both the midcap and the smallcap indices adding 0.7% each while the BSE benchmark index gained 0.4%

At the start of the day the markets began on a weak note due to the negative Asian cues. Later a bout of volatility was witnessed as the key benchmark indices slipped into the red after reversing initial losses to register new intraday highs in the afternoon trades. This upmove was mainly due to the recovery in the Asian markets and the Europe market opening strong. The US index futures too rose adding to the positive vibes.

BSE in its notice dated June 6, 2011, shifted a total of thirty-three stocks to trade-to-trade (T) group with effect from Friday, June 10, 2011. Some of the names that appear in the list are Shalimar Paints, Sabero Organics, Vimta Labs, Store One Retail India, Cambridge Solutions, KDL Biotech and House of Pearl Fashions. As a result many of these scrips were down between 2-10%. Of the transferred, Shalimar Paints, Sabero Organics and Store One India had rallied between 45-144% in the past few trading sessions as a result of positive news related to the company.

Among the sectoral indices, Realty stocks edged higher on bargain hunting throughout the day. The index was the top sectoral gainer and closed up1.6%. The movers in this space were HDIL which zoomed 6% followed by Anant Raj Industries, Orbit Corporation, D B Realty and Indiabulls Real Estate which added in the range of 2-4%.

Oil & Gas, IT, Health care and Metal indices were the other noteable gainers in today's trades. Index heavyweight, Reliance industries was the major mover in the Oil & Gas space followed by HPCL and Gail India which added 1% each. In the IT space, Infosys rose 2% at rs 2892 after the company reported that Jordan-based Housing Bank for Trade and Finance has selected Infosys' core banking solution Finacle to power the bank's innovation and customer experience-led growth. Also TCS added another percent to close at Rs 1177.

Metal stocks inched higher as LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, rose 0.41%. Banking and auto scrips had a quiet day ahead of Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) mid-quarter monetary policy review on 16 June and the meeting of a government panel on Thursday to decide on raising prices of diesel and cooking gas.

After several days of good run FMCG succumbed to profit booking and closed in the red, down 0.1%. Capital Goods was another index which lost 0.5% to the top loser among the sectoral indices.

Defensive pharma stocks had a good day with renewed buying interest seen in this space. Cadila Healthcare, Aurobindo Pharma, Genmark, Cipla and Sun Pharma gained in the range of 2-4%.

Apart from the stocks mentioned above, the top gainers among the Sensex stocks were Jaiprakash Associates (Rs 84) up 2% followed by Tata Steel (Rs 576), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 557), Maruti Suzuki (Rs 1245) and Mahindra & Mahindra (Rs 662) added 1% each.

On the losers side, Hindustan Unilever (Rs 308), Hero Honda (Rs 1834), L&T (Rs 1705),Wipro (Rs 440), Bharti Airtel (Rs 377) and Reliance Communication (Rs 92) which lost between 0.5 - 2% were the major losers.

The market breadth was positive. Of the total 2910 stocks traded on the BSE, 1533 stocks had advanced while 1256 declined.