Infy, IIP effect continue

Today's major news

Union Bank in talks to buy Indonesian banks; the stock closes 1.14% lower

Hotel Leela Venture mulls Rs3,000 crore capital expenditure; the stock rises 0.89%

Era Infra Engineering bags Rs1,659 crore contract; the stock jumps 2.11%

Punj Lloyd Group wins its first offshore project in Thailand; the stock shots up 4.78%

Orient Paper & Industries’ Q3 net profit declined by 44%; the stock plunges 6.00%.

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Post-market summary

Global signals

European indices are trading higher in morning trade, as drugmakers gain. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 is trading 0.47% higher.

All major Asian indices closed higher except Hang Seng, which closed lower by marginal 0.15%. SGX Nifty closed 15 points up.

US stock futures opened mixed on Thursday, as investors are cautious ahead of Intel earnings.

Indian indices

Capitalising on buoyant global cues, Indian indices closed higher on second straight session on gains in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) and Wipro. The Sensex opened 16 points higher at 17526 and never looked back. The day’s high was 17628 and the index closed at 17585, 75 points higher over its yesterday’s close. Nifty closed 26 points higher at 5260.

Market sentiment

The number of advancing shares was almost twice that of declining shares. Of the 2,975 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,929 stocks advanced, whereas 980 stocks declined. Sixty Six stocks closed unchanged

Sectoral & stock screening

Fast moving consumer goods stocks were hit the most with the BSE FMCG down by 0.5%. With the likelihood of policy intervention by the Reserve Bank of India increasing, banking and realty, the sectors first to feel the heat, saw the BSE Bankex and BSE Realty down by 0.07% and 0.26% respectively. IT stocks that ran away since Infosys Techonologies’ Q3 earning results seemed to slow down their pace with the BSE IT up by 0.19%. BSE Oil & Gas led the chart of toppers with the BSE Oil & Gas up by 2.35% followed by BSE CD that surged 1.65%.

On stocks’ front, Sterling Biotech surged the most by 9.46% followed by Koutons Retail that rose by 7.08% and Tata Tele Services that jumped 6.04%. Among losers, Sintex Industries slid the most by 3.25% followed by Hindustan Unilever that fell 2.86%.

Viewing volumes

GTL Infrastructure saw highest trading with over 1.23 crore shares changing hands on the BSE to be followed by telecom service provider, Tata Tele Services (0.72 crore shares), Unitech, India’s second biggest realty company, (0.55 crore shares), wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.54 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (0.51 crore shares).