Market rejoices on Ambani's move

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Global signals

European shares turned negative erasing early gains as investors staying cautious on a Spanish bank bailout and on worries that the Euro-zone crisis could hurt growth. At the time of writing the report, FTSE 100 was trading 0.55% lower.

All the major Asian indices closed in the positive territory except Jakarta Composite and Nikkei that closed in the red zone. SGX Nifty closed 5 points lower.

The US stock index futures point to a lower opening on the Wall Street on Monday. Investors will keep an eye on National Association of Realtors' existing home sales data for April for fresh insight on the outlook for the economy.

Indian indices

Ambani brothers — Mukesh and Anil — agreed to cancel all non-compete agreements and work in harmony. This news gave the market much-needed boost after the last week’s sell-off as Reliance Industries and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) stocks soared, which lifted the market sentiments and helped the Nifty to regain its psychological level of 5000. But the excitement for the overall market was short-lived, as the market erased most of its gains owing to weakness in the metal and realty stocks, and after European indices turning negative. If there would had not been Reliance Industries’ contribution in today’s trade, then the markets would have ended in the negative territory.

The Sensex remained highly volatile by swinging 344 points and the Nifty 106 points in a day. The Sensex slipped 288 points and the Nifty 86 points from day's high.

The 30-stock Sensex started the session 50 points higher at 16495 on supportive global cues and extended its gains in morning trade on the Ambani brothers' patch up news. The Sensex touched the day’s high of 17758 in afternoon session as European stocks opened in the positive territory. However, post lunch, the market failed to hold its early gains and gradually started paring most of its gains as European indices turned negative and late selling pressure seen in metal, banking and auto stocks dragged the market down into the negative territory to hit the day’s low of 16413. However, the Sensex managed to close with marginal gains of 24 points at 16470. The Nifty was also able to close in the green at 4944, 13 points higher.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was positive as advancing stocks outpaced declining stocks. Of the 2,928 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,674 stocks advanced, whereas 1,155 stocks declined. Ninety-Nine stocks remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Of the 13 sector indices, six closed higher while seven closed lower. Among gainers, BSE Oil & Gas surged the most by 1.61%, followed by BSE Power that advanced 1.16%. On the other hand, BSE Realty was hit the most by 1.92%, BSE Metal declined by 0.93% and BSE Auto slid 0.83%.

Among 'A' group stocks: ADAG stocks occupied the top three slots as Reliance Natural Resources was up 22.58%, Reliance Communications gained 10.87% and Reliance Power surged 7.86%. The top three losers were – Hindalco Industries (down 3.93%), Tata Chemicals (down 3.73% after posting below expectation Q4 numbers) and Marico (down 3.18%).
Viewing volumes

ADAG firm and top gainer among ‘A’ group stocks — Reliance Natural Resources saw highest trading with over 2.41 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by India's largest developer — Unitech (0.58 crore shares), diversified conglomerate — Adani Enterprises (0.56 crore shares), pharmaceutical firm — Piramal Healthcare (0.52 crore shares) and industrial finance company — IFCI (0.51 crore shares).