The Bulls greeted New Year with a smile as buying momentum in the frontline stocks like Satyam Computer, M&M, Infosys, RIL, Bharti Airtel, SBI and TCS lifted NSE Nifty to close above the 4000 mark for the first time. Both the key indices grew by over 1% led by Auto stocks. Impressive monthly sales numbers aided the auto stocks to surge higher, others like Technology and Capital Good stocks also followed the suit. Robust opening ended on a strong note as bears were unable to show their faces in the whole trading session. Finally, the BSE benchmark Sensex surged 155 points to close at 13942. NSE Nifty was up 41 points to close at 4007.
Praj Industries spurred over 10% to Rs211 after the company announced that it had received overseas orders worth Rs1.7bn. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs213 and a low of Rs193 and recorded volumes of over 18,00,000 shares on NSE.
Nagarjuna Constructions surged 2.3% to Rs219 after the company secured orders worth Rs2.55bn. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs221 and a low of Rs212 and recorded volumes of over 11,00,000 shares on NSE.
Lupin edged lower by 0.4% to Rs611. The company received a tentative USFDA nod for Sertraline. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs619 and a low of Rs605 and recorded volumes of over 24,000 shares on NSE.
Auto stocks raced ahead on back of impressive monthly sales numbers. Maruti advanced over 4% to Rs968 as the company reported a 23.7% increase in total sales during December 2006 at 56,985 units as demand for small cars and vans increased, M&M over 5% to Rs954, Bajaj Auto was up 4.5% to Rs2742 after the company’s sales of two and three wheelers rose 24% in December, boosted by demand for motorcycles and Hero Honda was up 2.9% to Rs785 after the company announced on Tuesday that it sold 252,462 units in December, up 3%. Domestic sales grew by mere 2.6% to 245,141 units and exports were up 16.5% at 7,321 units.
Technology stocks ended with smart gains. Index heavy weight Satyam Computer, Infosys, TCS and Wipro were among the major gainers.
Telecom stocks were in demand. Bharti Airtel edged higher 0.7% to Rs635, Reliance Communication 0.5% to Rs474, VSNL spurred 4.6% to Rs444 and MTNL was up 2.8% to Rs146.
Metal stocks were shining brightly. SAIL advanced 2.2% to Rs91, Sterlite Industries gained 2.1% to Rs554, Hindalco was up 2.2% to Rs178 and Hindustan Zinc added 0.8% to Rs833.
Cement stocks also record concrete gains. Gujarat Ambuja advanced 2.5% to Rs144, ACC was up 0.6% to Rs1092, Grasim gained 1.2% to Rs2835 and Mangalam Cement surged 4% to Rs209.