Sensex snaps losing streak; auto, realty shine

After losing over 800 points in three days, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index, or Sensex, rose on the back of buying in auto and realty stocks. Also, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s remark that though 161 districts in the country were drought-hit, the economy might still be able to beat the 6 per cent growth target improved sentiments.

The market was highly volatile. It closed at 15,074.59, up 64.82 points, or 0.43 per cent. The CNX Nifty closed at 4,471.35, up 33.70 points.

“Monsoon and swine flu are playing on the sentiments of market players,” said Ambareesh Baliga, vice-president, Karvy Stock Broking.

Baliga expected the Nifty to be rangebound but said that if the Nifty broke the 4,400 level, it could touch 4,100. “This is quite fairly priced from the fundamental point of view,” he added.

On Monday, US markets were flat ahead of vital economic data, including Federal Reserve’s statement on interest rates that is due this week. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq slipped marginally by 0.34 per cent and 0.40 per cent, respectively.

Asian markets were flat. Only the Straits Times index moved up 1.88 per cent. The Nikkei-225 and the Hang Seng were up 0.69 per cent and 0.58 per cent, respectively.

Among the Sensex gainers, Tata Motors surged 6.81 per cent. Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) had said yesterday that it could successfully secure a financing facility of up to Rs 600 crore with Burdale Financial, a member of the Bank of Ireland Group.

Mahindra & Mahindra (3.55 per cent), Hindalco (3.38 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (3.23 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (2.23 per cent) were some of the other major gainers on the BSE on Tuesday.

On the losing side, Jaiprakash Associates and Housing Development Finance Company were down 2.64 per cent and 1.11 per cent, respectively. NTPC (0.88 per cent), ONGC (0.7 per cent), Wipro (0.64 per cent), ICICI Bank (0.38 per cent) and Hero Honda (0.34 per cent) were some of the other marginal losers.

All sectoral indices ended in the green, barring the public sector unit index, which was down 0.02 per cent. The auto index rallied 3.07 per cent. Auto shares have been on a downward journey since August 5 on profit-booking after the recent surge triggered by good sales numbers. But monsoon concerns had led to widespread selling as there were expectations that companies in this sector might suffer due to lack of rural demand.

Other sectoral indices to gain included realty (2.14 per cent) and metals (2 per cent). Healthcare, oil & gas, Bankex, TECk, consumer durables, information technology and FMCG were up less than a per cent.

Software exporters started gaining after Goldman Sachs improved its outlook on the country's information technology services sector.

The market breadth was marginally positive. Out of 2,757 shares traded, 1,339 advanced, 1,324, declined and 94 were unchanged on Tuesday on the BSE.

Domestic institutional investors were net buyers of shares worth Rs 628.87 crore while foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs 177.47 crore on Tuesday, according to provisional data by the BSE.