Post Budget party continues

The positive vibes from the Budget, which saw the markets end last week on a firm note, were strong enough this morning as well. Add to this, positive global cues, and our markets started on a strong note, got stronger and ended on a solid note.

The NSE Nifty regained the 5,000 mark, after a gap of more than a month.  The index touched a high of 5,029, and finally ended at 5,017 - up 95 points. Last time the index closed above 5,000 was on January 25, 2010.

The Sensex ended at 16,773 - up 343 points after touching a high of 16,808.

Most of the sectoral indices were in the green. The auto sector rallied 4.7% to 7,510, along with metal (4%), bankex (2.5%) and FMCG (2.2%).

However, the realty sector under-performed. Oil & gas index ended with marginal gains after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there might not be any roll back on fuel prices.

The BSE market breadth was positive through the day. Out of 2,901stocks traded, 2,059 advanced while 768 declined.

The biggest beneficiaries were the infrastructure, steel and cement. These sectors surged in trades today.

 

Among steel stocks - Tata Steel surged 6% to Rs 609. SAIL was up 3% at Rs 225. Sesa Goa added 4.4% to Rs 418. Sensex stocks - Sterlite and Hindalco were up 3-4% each. Nalco gained marginally.

Nagarjuna Construction gained 1.5% at Rs 156. IRB Infrastructure added 2.2% to Rs 258. Sensex stock, Larsen & Toubro was up 1% at Rs 1,582. MSK Projects (India) jumped 4.5% while Subhash Projects and Gammon Infrastructure advanced over 1% each.Cement stocks also added. ACC rallied 4.3% to Rs 963. Jaiprakash Associates added 3.4% to Rs 137. Ambuja Cements, India Cement and Ultratech Cement also ended in green.

Oil Marketing Companies fell after the restoration of basic custom duty of 5% on crude petroleum and 7.5% for petrol and diesel.

HPCL and BPCL dropped 2.5% each to Rs 339 and Rs 541, respectively. IOC was down 1.8% at Rs 312.

The day belonged to Tata Motors which soared 12% to Rs 797. Among Sensex heavyweights, ICICI Bank surged 2.9% to Rs 898. Reliance was up  marginally at Rs 983. Infosys added 1.4% to Rs 2,640.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS: 

Tata Motors topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 235.24 crore, followed by Tata Steel (Rs 123.54 crore), DLF (Rs 102.40 crore), Reliance Capital ( Rs 101.12 crore) and HDIL (Rs 92.58 crore).

The volume chart was led by Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision with trades of 23.13 million shares, followed by Unitech (9.60 million), IFCI (7.06 milliom), SpiceJet (6.67 million) and Reliance Natural Resources (5.07 million).