Q4 earnings overshine; bulls’ march continue

Today's major news

ICICI Bank Q4 net profit up 35% yoy, the stock is down 1.60%

Indiabulls Financial FY2010 net up 38.91%, the stock surges 2.96%

Bosch Q1 net profit jumps 310%, the stock closes 0.35% lower

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Global signals

European stocks were trading in the positive territory on Monday owing to strong global markets, as banks lead amid optimism that Greece can avoid defaulting on its debt. FTSE 100 (London) was trading 0.46% higher.

Among major Asian indices, all the indices closed in the positive territory except Shanghai Composite. Japan’s Nikkei rose by 2.30%. SGX Nifty closed 12 points higher.

US stock futures point to a higher opening on the Wall Street on Monday. Earning of Caterpillar will be on focused.

Indian indices

Domestic indices largely traded in a range through out the session. The market continued its northward journey on the fifth straight day on the back of strong global markets, encouraging Q4 numbers of Indian Inc and optimistic forecast of monsoon by the Indian Meteorological Department.

The Sensex that opened just 2 points lower (at 17692) and never saw that level again as it soon turned positive to touch the day’s high of 17826. However, the Sensex trimmed some of its gain in the afternoon session as realty and oil & gas stocks were hit the most, but continues buying in metals helped the Sensex to close the session in green. At the finishing line, the Sensex quoted at 17745, advanced by 51 points and Nifty signed off the day at 18 points higher at 5322.

Market sentiment

Of the 2,974 shares traded on the BSE, 1555 shares (52%) advanced whereas 1325 shares (45%) declined. Ninety four shares (3%) remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Of the 13 sectoral indices in BSE; nine of the sectors ended in green, while four closed the day in red. The sectors that were surged the most — BSE Metal gains 2.34%, followed by the BSE PSU that advanced by 0.60% and rest on the sectors rose in the range of 0.04% to 0.56% respectively. The losing sectors were — BSE Realty lost 1.63%, BSE Oil & Gas declined 0.95%, BSE HC down by 0.49% and BSE Auto sheds 0.21%.

On stocks’ front, Indian Bank was the star stock of the day posting gains of 14.09%, followed by Jain Irrigation that surged by 7.69% and Gujarat NRE Coke that rose by 7.35%. Among losers, Sun Pharmaceuticals slid the most by 4.77%, followed by Balrampur Chini that fell by 3.27% and HDIL that shed 2.76%.

Viewing volumes

India’s second largest realty firm Unitech was the most actively traded share with over 0.33 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by Jaiprakash Associates (0.29 crore shares), steel maker Ispat Industries (0.28 crore shares), Gujarat NRE Coke (0.27 crore shares) and Industrial finance company IFCI (0.22 crore shares)