Monsoon relief lifts Sensex 228 points

Stock market indices closed in the green on Friday after the Indian Meteorological Department said there were indications of a revival in monsoon. There was some short-covering in the latter half of the trading session as well.

After selling shares worth Rs 3,008.58 crore during the week, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers on Friday. They bought shares worth Rs 532.80 crore. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of Rs 95.72 crore, taking their total weekly purchase to Rs 1,596.67 crore, according to provisional data from the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Cues from the Asian market were mixed. While the Nikkei-225 and the Hang Seng Index slipped 1.4 per cent and 0.64 per cent, respectively, the Shanghai gained 1.69 per cent.

US markets closed in the green yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.76 per cent and Nasdaq rising 1.01 per cent.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index, or Sensex, gained 228.51 points, or 1.52 per cent, to close the week at 15,240.83. However, on a weekly basis, the index lost 1.1 per cent, largely due to a 4 per cent, or 626-point, plunge on Monday.

The CNX Nifty ended the week at 4528.80, up 1.69 per cent.

Amitabh Chakraborty, head (securities), Religare Securities, said, “Though the market was nervous in the morning, short-covering in the second half pulled it up. There was buying across sectors such as realty, auto, technology and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).”

The market breath was positive. A total of 2, 256 stocks advanced, 1,372 declined and 143 remained unchanged.

All sectoral indices were in the green on Friday. Seven of them outperformed the Sensex. The realty index led the rally and gained 3.48 per cent, followed by auto (2.27 per cent), Teck (1.96 per cent) and IT (1.85 per cent).

Among the Sensex stocks, Hero Honda rose 4.84 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank (3.64 per cent) and Mahindra & Mahindra (3.58 per cent). Manish Sonthalia, equity head at Motilal Oswal, said, “Throughout the week shorts had been created, which were covered on the last day of the week. Moreover, reports of increased rainfall in some areas helped sectors like auto and FMCG that were being adversely impacted.”