Sensex gains 244 points; healthcare stocks zoom (Roundup)

A day ahead of the first monetary policy review of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for 2015-16, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), made healthy gains during Monday's trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the day's trade. It was trading 73.65 points or 0.86 percent up at 8,659.90 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,351.94 points, closed the day's trade at 28,504.46 points, up 244.32 points or 0.86 percent from the previous day's close at 28,260.14 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,530.81 points and a low of 28,221.99 points in the intra-day trade.

Healthy buying was observed in healthcare, capital goods, consumer durables, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automobile, oil and gas and realty sectors.

The S&P BSE healthcare index rocketed 855.48 points, capital goods index zoomed by 244.40 points, consumer durables index augmented by 215.17 points, FMCG index rose by 185.24 points and automobile index moved up by 170.14 points.

The S&P BSE oil and gas index increased by 188.22 points and realty index rose 108.72 points.

However, metal index fell 37.77 points.

Analysts said the Indian markets reacted to the possibility of a rate cut in the RBI's first monetary policy review for 2015-16.

The RBI is scheduled to announce its first bi-monthly policy review for 2015-16 on April 7.

Charting Monday's trade, an analyst said the markets remained subdued till noon. Later selective buying in pharma, auto and FMCG sector stocks helped the markets to recover.

On the economic front, the country's services data came out which slowed in March. The HSBC PMI (purchasing managers' index) data stood at 53 from 53.9 in the previous month.

"Defensive stocks are moving ahead before the important policy meet tomorrow. As RBI is likely to hold rates, though there is scope to surprise the market through cash reserve ratio (CRR), Statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and assessment of future outlook," said Vinod Nair, head - Fundamental Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

According to Nair, a 25 basis points cut can be expected by June, as the recent inflation numbers does not favour for a rate cut now.

Anindya Banerjee, analyst, Kotak Securities said: "Indian equities gained by nearly a percent, as interest rate sensitive sectors, like utilities, engineering, consumer durables, real estate and some banks clocked gains between 2-5 percent."

"Over the near term, we see little impact of RBI monetary policy on rupee, as bonds and equity markets remain a high beta," Banerjee added.

Devendra Nevgi, chief executive of ZyFin Advisors, told IANS that the language of the RBI in its outlook statement would be the next key trigger for the markets.

The major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: Sun Pharma, up 8.34 percent at Rs.1,168.50; Dr.Reddy's Lab, up 4.33 percent at Rs.3,679.30; Gail, up 3.77 percent at Rs.399.10; Cipla, up 3.59 percent at Rs.734.95; and ONGC, up 3.48 percent at Rs.317.10.

The losers were: Tata Steel, down 1.84 percent at Rs.318.05; Wipro, down 1.75 percent at Rs.620.25; Reliance Industries, down 1.26 percent at Rs.824; Coal India, down 0.72 percent at Rs.360.25; and Tata Power, down 0.64 percent at Rs.77.05.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei went down by 0.19 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher by 0.77 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index also gained by 0.99 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up by 0.35 percent and France's CAC 40 was higher by 0.24 percent. However, Germany's DAX Index was down 0.28 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.