Nifty crosses 5100

Today's major news

Larsen & Toubro to pump Rs4,500 crore more into Rajpura plant; the stock surges 1.28%

The Reserve Bank of India postpones base rate implementation

Kansai Nerolac plans capital expenditure; the stock rises 1.53%

Reliance Industries likely to taste success again in Cauvery region; the stock closes 0.47% lower

Shree Cement commissions unit in Rajasthan; the stock closes 0.54% up

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Post-market summary

Global signals

European indices fell marginally in early trades on Monday. At the time of writing this report FTSE 100 was down 0.18%.

All the major Asian indices closed higher. Nikkei closed 2.09% higher while SGX Nifty closed 16 points higher.

US stock futures opened marginally lower on Monday.

Indian indices

After rallying in the last week, domestic indices continued their northbound journey on Monday on the back of better-than-expected US job unemployment data that pushed the markets across the globe up. This along with continuous buying in automobile and banking counters helped the indices breach past their crucial levels—the Sensex crossed 17000 and Nifty 5100. The Sensex opened 40 points higher at 17035, which was also its day’s low, and capitalized on these gains to touch the day’s high of 17187. At finishing line, the Sensex closed at 17103, 107 points higher over its yesterday’s close. Nifty closed 35 points higher at 5124.

Market sentiment

Of the 2,946 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,761 stocks advanced, whereas 1,097 stocks declined. Eighty-eight stocks closed unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Of the 13 sector indices, nine closed higher while four closed lower. Among gainers BSE Auto surged the most by 1.79% followed by BSE Bankex that advanced 1.09%. On the other hand BSE Realty was hit the most—by 0.59%--while BSE CD, BSE Metal and BSE PSU fell marginally.

On stock’s front, the top three gainers were Essar Oil (up 6.43%), Lanco Infratech (up 6.35%) and Aban Offshore (up 5.58%). The top three losers were NMDC (down 3.35%), Indiabulls Financial (down 3.12%) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 2.98%).

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy was the most actively traded share with over 0.82 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by India’s second largest realty company Unitech (0.68 crore shares), oil major Essar Oil (0.55 crore shares), public sector unit Rural Electrification Corporation (0.49 crore shares) and infrastructure giant Lanco Infratech (0.45 crore shares).