Indian indices dance to global tunes

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Global signals

European stocks edge higher on Tuesday with banks and commodity stocks gaining, after a rally on the Wall Street and on hopes that Euro zone finance ministers are making progress with details of a rescue package. FTSE 100 was trading higher by 0.97%.

All the major Asian indices closed in the positive territory except Kospi that closed lower by 0.50%. SGX Nifty closed mere one point higher.

US stock futures signal higher opening on the Wall Street. Investor keep an eye on earnings of Wal-Mart Stores and Hewlett-Packard, and data related to producer price index, housing starts and permits for the month of April.

Indian indices

The Indian indices had made a subdued start and then traded negative for quite some time. Late recovery made by Asian markets, positive opening in European markets and gains in US index futures, helped to recover morning losses and end the choppy session with marginal gains.

Mirroring Asian cues, the 30-share benchmark index , Sensex started the session marginally higher by mere 5 points at 16840, soon turned negative and remained in red zone through out the morning session. The Sensex touched the day's low of 16744. However, in afternoon session, late recovery in Asian markets, positive opening in European markets, and buying in consumer durables and capital goods stocks led to an intraday recovery, which helped the Sensex to turn positive and touch the day's high of 17000. However, the Sensex was not able to sustain that level and latter lost the momentum due to selling pressure in metal stocks and heavyweight like ICICI Bank. At finishing line, the Sensex and the Nifty managed to close in green. The Sensex ended the day 40 points higher at 16876 and the Nifty signed off 6 points higher at 5066.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was positive as advancing stocks outnumbered trailing stocks. Of the 2,925 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,643 stocks advanced, whereas 1,180 stocks declined. Hundred and two stocks closed unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Capital goods (CG) and consumer durable (CD) stocks witnessed some investor interest, with the BSE CG and BSE CD up by 1.62% and 1.50% respectively. Metal stocks have been under pressure for some days, with BSE Metal down by 1.91% for the day. The rest of the sectors were either marginally up or down.

Among 'A' group stocks: Top gainers' were - star stock for the day was Federal Bank that was up by 5.01%, followed by BEML that surged by 4.82% and Sintex Industries that rose by 4.29%. Top losers' were - Rolta India slid the most by 5.36%, followed by Sesa Goa that fell by 5.10% and Hindustan Zinc that shed 3.91%.

Viewing volumes

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company Reliance Natural Resources continued to see highest trading with over 0.47 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by wind turbine major Suzlon Energy (0.40 crore shares), India's second largest developer Unitech (0.33 crore shares), India's leading steel maker Tata Steel (0.31 crore shares) and infrastructure firm IVRCL Infrastructure and Projects (0.30 crore shares).