Wipro, Infosys deals help Sensex stage a rally

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index, or Sensex, managed a slight pull-back towards the end of the day after Infosys Technologies and Wipro bagged overseas contracts.

Infosys soared on the back of the company getting a five-year outsourcing deal from mobile operator T-Mobile UK while Wipro advanced after the company signed a five-year agreement with US-based Charming Shoppes.

After Tuesday’s fall, the Sensex On Wednesday opened 51 points higher at 15,883 on firm cues from global markets. However, it slipped into the negative zone and continued to languish in the red to touch a low of 15,695.11 — down 278 points from the day’s high.

The Sensex gained significantly towards the end of the day on the back of fresh buying in energy and IT stocks. The mood in the market has been bullish recently due to better-than-expected corporate earnings and positive global cues. The Sensex finally ended at 15,903.83, up 72.85 points (0.46 per cent), while the SNX Nifty closed at 4,694.15, up 13.65 (0.29 per cent).

“Markets are right now in a consolidation mode. If the Nifty manages to break the 4,700 level, it can go up to 4,900,” said D D Sharma, (senior vice president), Anand Rathi.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,792 stoks traded, 1,625 advanced, 1,071 declined while 96 were unchanged.

Among sectoral indices, BSE consumer durables added 2.11 per cent. Oil & gas (1.95 per cent), IT (1.94 per cent), TECk (1.19 per cent) and PSU (1.11 per cent) indices were the other prominent sectoral movers.

Realty and auto indices were the major losers, down 1.92 per cent and 1.11 per cent, respectively. ONGC gained 4.5 per cent, followed by Wipro (3.25 per cent), ACC (2.74 per cent), Infosys (2.49 per cent) and Sun Pharmaceuticals (2 per cent).

Maruti Suzuki was a major laggard, down 3.10 per cent. Hindalco (1.86 per cent), DLF (1.74 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.54 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (1.29 per cent), Housing Development Finance Corporation (1.22 per cent) and Reliance Communication (1 per cent) were some of the other prominent losers.

Other Asian markets slumped ahead of more corporate earnings as investors were worried about the health of the economy.

The Hang Seng slipped 1.45 per cent, the Straits Times dropped 1.58 per cent, The Taiwan Weighted Index shed 1.55per cent and the Nikkei was down 1.18 per cent.

“The momentum is currently very strong. Investors are advised to either reduce their portfolio beta or use stop-losses. But shorting the market will be a risky proposition,” said Amitabh Chakroborty, head (equities), Religare Securities.