Sensex ends up 122 pts

Sensex ends (provisional) at 18,938 - up 122 points. Nifty ends up 29 points at 5,683.
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(Updated at 1444 hrs)

Jittery from an ouster of German Chancellor Angela-Merkel's conservatives in a key state election, the euro dropped further from Friday's levels, while an increasing nuclear contamination threat in Japan, around the ill-fated Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, heightened investor averseness to riskier assets. As Asian stocks fell, the domestic markets opened on a soft note, with IT stocks weighing down on the bourses, after two consecutive sessions of gains the previous week.

In the late noon trades, the markets were trading off the day's high, with the Sensex at 18,976 up 160 points, while the Nifty was at 5,692 up 37 points. Having gained during the late morning session on the back of strong buying in FMCG and auto stocks, the Sensex soon slipped to the day's low of 18,799.57, owing to weakness in heavyweights Reliance and Infosys. The noon session was marked by choppiness, with the derivatives expiry, due on Thursday, along with a year-end reshuffling of positions also implying a volatile element to the markets.

In the early afternoon session, buying in banking and capital goods stocks saw the markets regain lost ground again, with the Sensex scaling the 19k mark a little after 1400 hrs, for the first time since January 24. The markets witnessed a choppy day today, even though they traded in the positive through the day. Investors were seen booking profits during intra-day peaks, as the bourses lodged gains for the fifth consecutive day. Technical analysts expect markets to maintain an upward trend in the medium term. Devangshu Dutta, a technical analyst, said, "The markets look bullish; support for the Nifty is seen at 5,650, and the resistance is at 5,700. An upside above 5,750 will be driven by break out in the financial stocks."

Gainers on the Sensex were L&T at Rs 1,652 and Tata Motors at Rs 1,217 both up 3%, followed by Reliance Infra at Rs 666, Bharti Airtel at Rs 346 and ONGC at Rs 281, all up 2%. FMCG major Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, SBI, Maruti Suzuki and ICICI Bank were all up nearly 2%.

Losers on the benchmark were Jaiprakash Associates at Rs 89 down 2%, Reliance Communications at Rs 105 and Sterlite Industries all down 1%. Infosys at Rs 3,136 and Cipla at Rs 305 were also down nearly 1% each.

Capital goods stocks saw robust buying, and the index was up nearly 2% at 13,248. Major gainers in this space were L&T at Rs 1,652 up 3%, Alstom Projects at Rs 570 and Praj Industries at Rs 74 both up 2%.

The Bankex follwed the Capital Goods index on the sectoral chart up 1.5% at 13,122. Top gainers on the index were IndusInd Bank at Rs 264 and IDBI Bank at Rs 146 both up 4%, while the Bank of Baroda at Rs 950 and Federal Bank at Rs 394 were up 2% each.

Auto stocks also gained momentum, as the index advanced 1% to 8,958. Tata Motors at Rs 1,217 up 3% was the major gainer on the Auto index, followed by Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,201 up 2% and Bajaja Auto at Rs 1,402 up 1.5%. Ashok Leyland, Apollo Tyres, Hero Hinda and Mahindra & Mahindra were all up nearly 1% each.

Healthcare stocks were the laggards in trade, as the index slipped 1% to 5,896. Significant losers in this space were Aurobindo Pharma at Rs 187 down nearly 6%, Sun Pharma at Rs 441 down 4%, Jubilant Life at rs 150 dpwn 3% and Piramal Health at Rs 150 down 2%.