Post Market Commentary -Apr 1 2010

After two days of profit booking, markets bounced back today to close the truncated week on a strong note. Sensex gained 164 points to finish at 17692 while Nifty closed at 5290, up 41 points. BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices gained 0.9% and 2.4% respectively. On weekly basis, Sensex and Nifty are up 0.27% and 0.16% respectively. Realty and Consumer Durable indices gained the most among the sectoral indices, putting on 3.3% and 2.7% over the week while IT and Teck indices were down the most, losing 2.9% and 2.5% respectively. Food inflation for the week ending March 20th came in at 16.35% versus 16.22% for the previous week. Fuel inflation stood at 12.75% as against 12.68% while Primary Articles inflation came in at 13.86% versus 13.88%. Software stocks, which were in correction mode for past couple of session, bounced back and ended with decent gains. Capital goods major BHEL announced its fourth quarter FY10 provisional numbers where net profit as well as net sales rose 40% each year-on-year. European markets were up about a percent, hitting fresh 18-month high, on the back of upbeat manufacturing data from Europe and China. Dow futures were higher by half a percent ahead of report on unemployment claims and manufacturing.



BSE IT and Consumer Durable indices were the top gainers among the sectoral indices for the day, putting on 2.3% and 1.5% respectively while FMCG and Auto indices finished lower by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively. HUL and Bharti Airtel were down the most among the Nifty stocks, shedding 3.8% and 3.3% respectively while TCS and JP Associate were the top gainers, up 3.5% and 3.4% respectively. BSE advance-decline ratio stood at 3.6:1.