Sensex bounces, metal stocks lend a hand

Investors set out for bargain hunting today that helped the benchmark Sensex stage a modest recovery at 27,117 at the close as hopes grew that the upcoming Budget on February 1 would contain steps that can ease the impact of the cash ban.
The market, which remained range-bound for the much of the session, turned better towards the end after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking postponement of the Union budget on the ground of forthcoming Assembly polls in 5 states.
Metal and mining stocks stirred fancy as base metal prices rose at the London Metal Exchange (LME) on expectations that demand might pick up as the US President Donald Trump reiterated plans to spend on infrastructure amid weakness in the dollar.

The 30-share Sensex moved both ways before settling at 27,117.34, up 82.84 points, or 0.31 per cent. Intra-day, it moved between 26,963.58 and 27,167.79.
The gauge had lost 274.10 points in the previous session on Friday as investors tried to look for clarity from the initial days of the Trump administration.
The broad-based NSE Nifty recovered 42.15 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 8,391.50 after hitting a high of 8,404.15 and a low of 8,327.20.

A mixed trend in Asia and a lower opening in Europe pulled back participants here as Trump's economic policy details gradually emerge, traders said.
Volatility was the order of the day ahead of expiry of derivatives contracts this week, which is truncated due to a holiday on Thursday on account of Republic Day.

"At the start of the expiry week, benchmark indices in India traded volatile, with the India VIX going up a notch to trade at 15.80 levels," said Karthikraj Lakshmanan, Senior Fund Manager, Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
In the metal space, Tata Steel, Hindalco, National Aluminium, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel, Hindustan Zinc, Vedanta Ltd and NMDC caught buyers' attention and climbed by up to 5.75 per cent.
The optimism ensured banking stocks kept aside their asset quality worries while IT companies that were on the backfoot last week ahead of Trump's inaugural speech gave up the cautionary stance.
The recently battered blue-chips turned attractive amid encouraging earnings by some companies.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 26.34 crore last Friday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also offloaded shares worth a net of Rs 175.48 crore on Friday.
GAIL surged the most, rising 2.41 per cent, followed by HDFC Ltd (1.77 per cent) and Tata Motors (1.72 per cent).
The metal index gained the maximum by rising 2.61 per cent, followed by PSU (1.26 per cent), oil and gas (1.15 per cent) and IT (0.63 per cent).
The broader markets rose, with the mid-cap and small-cap indices ending higher by 0.48 per cent and 0.47 per cent, respectively.

"The market was very volatile, but with a positive bias in
spite of the protectionist leaning inaugural speech by Trump. This is because the dollar had weakened, giving a relief rally to gold as investors switched to other safe haven assets due to ambiguity over future US policies. Metal index outperformed in expectation of rising global demand," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
In the 30-share Sensex space, 19 ended up while 11 led by ICICI Bank, L&T, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's closed with losses.
The market breadth turned positive as 1,611 shares ended higher, 1,103 closed lower while 201 ruled steady.

The total turnover on BSE hit Rs 3,094.30 crore, up from Rs 2,574.79 crore previously on Friday.