Sensex starts New Year with 20-month high

The markets opened the New Year on a promising note today with the BSE Sensex shutting the shop at a 20-month high at 17,558.73 gaining 94 points, driven by a rally in the auto and metals counters and firm European cues.

After a negative opening, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer moved in a range of 17,582.84 and 17,378.38 before ending the day at 17,558.73, a net rise of 93.92 points or 0.54 per cent over the last close. This is a 20-month for the markets.

The markets opened at 0900 hrs on the first trading session in the New Year. The BSE and the National Stock Exchange had late last month advanced the trading timing to 0900 hrs from today with a view to better align the domestic markets with the Asian bourses.

The auto, metals, consumer durables and FMCG counters attracted good buying support.

The auto index rallied as the auto companies posted strong sales in December 2009 while metal counters attracted good buying support on rising demand. Though Asian markets ended mixed today, the European rally supported the market to hit a 20-month high today.

The Nikkei, Kospi,Taiwan Weighted index finished in the green while Hang Seng and Strait Times closed with losses.

On the other hand, the European indices opened the day in the positive terrain. The CAC was up 1.03 per cent, the DAX by 0.80 per cent and the FTSE by 0.49 per cent.

The broader 50-issue Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange also improved by 31.15 points or 0.60 per cent to 5,232.20 from its previous close.

Small- and mid-cap counters outperformed the Sensex and attracted good investment buying support.

Marketmen said, the markets could not sustain higher levels as the RIL counter declined 1.29 per cent following a massive block deal of 2.5 crore shares at Rs 1035 per share arrested the rally.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Auto flared up 139.93 points or 1.88 per cent, the BSE-Metal by 316.08 points or 1.82 per cent, the BSE-CD (consumer durables) by 68.47 points or 1.81 per cent and the BSE-FMCG by 30.97 points or 1.11 per cent.

From the sectoral indices only BSE-Oil & Gas index ended with losses while all other finished in green.

Among Sensex-counters, ACC spurted 4.87 per cent, Jaiprash Associates by 4.70 per cent, M&M by 4.52 per cent, Tata Motors by 4.39 per cent, Grasim by 2.71 per cent, Tata Steel by 2.66 per cent, RelInfra by 2.13 per cent, Wipro by 2.08 per cent and Sterlite by 1.54 per cent.

However, NTPC declined 1.65 per cent, RIL by 1.29 per cent and Bharti Airtel by 1.16 per cent.

The overall market breadth was strongly positive as 2,132 counters ending with gains against only 746 finishing with losses on the BSE.