Sensex shows strength, surges by 204 points

The Sensex continued its pre-Diwali celebrations for the second trading session in trot and registered massive gains on the back of the better-than-expected Q2 numbers announced today along with positive cues from the Asian and European indices.

On Tuesday, the US market had closed almost flat with marginal loss, however European markets (FTSE 100) today opened higher and the index was trading stronger at 5243 that is about 89 points over its previous closing. Besides, the Asian indices that rallied strongly today ended the day with decent gains. Nikkei 225 fell by 16 points and was the only Asian index that ended the day in red, while all the other Asian indices closed with massive gains. Hang Seng, Jakarta Composite, Taiwan Weighted and Straits Times ended the day 1.31 to 1.95% higher over their previous closing.
On the back of strong Asian cues, the Sensex opened at 17118, 91 points higher over previous closing. The bellwether was pushed higher on the positive flow of Q2 numbers announced during the course of the day along with the strong opening of the European indices to hit the day’s high of 17275. Among the results announced today, HDFC Bank staged an impressive performance, wherein its bottom-line grew by 30% mainly boosted by the massive surge in its non-interest income. The Bank’s robust Q2 performance helped the banking and financial stocks to surge on the bourses. The Sensex ended the day at 17231 with strong gains of 204 points, while Nifty rose by 64 points to end the session at 5118. The Singapore Nifty closed 68 points higher to its previous day’s closing settlement price. Advancing shares outnumbered the declining stocks on the BSE. Out of the 2,840 stocks traded on the stock exchange, 1,685 stocks advanced, whereas 1,075 stocks declined. Eighty stocks ended unchanged.

All the 13 sectoral indices on the BSE except the BSE TECk, which ended the day with a marginal loss of 0.37%, ended positive. Among the gainers, the BSE Metal surged the most posting gains of 5.27% followed by the BSE CG and the BSE Auto that jumped by more than 2% each, while BSE PSU, BSE Bankex, BSE Power, BSE CD, BSE HC, and BSE Realty rose by over 1% each. On the stocks’ front, PTC India topped the chart of gaining stocks surging by 20.82% to Rs105.05 followed by Sesa Goa that rose by 13.89% to Rs341.15, while Jindal Steel, GVK Power and Infrastructure, Punj Lloyd, Hindustan Construction Company and Cadila Healthcare jumped over 7% each. Among losers, Reliance Communications fell the most by 6.54% to Rs231.60 followed by Jet Airways that declined by 6.44% to Rs400.20. Ultratech Cement and Indiabulls Real Estate lost over 4% each. The stocks losing over 3% in today's trade included Ambuja Cement, Tata Communications, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

On the turnover front, Over 1.14 crore shares of Ispat Industries changed hands on the BSE followed Unitech by (1.12 crore shares), Sesa Goa (0.96 crore shares), PTC India (0.94 crore shares) and Suzlon Energy (0.86 crore shares).