Nifty ends at psychological 5000 mark

It was yet another day where we danced to the global tune. After a two day decline, the Indian markets managed to end with modest gains on Wednesday amid highly volatile trading session. Markets started off with a slight positive bias and went on to surge hitting day’s high. The early upswing was on account of overnight gains in the US and a smart bounce back in the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong.

"Sentiment however took a hit and the benchmark indices tumbled from day’s high in afternoon session as market players reacted sharply to a fall in European shares", says Amar Ambani Vice President Research IIFL.



Equity markets across Europe pared early gains after Britain posted a goods trade deficit of 7.3bn pounds in April. Economists had forecast an April deficit of 6.8 billion pounds, according to reports.

In a noticeable move, the FMCG counter witnessing some profit booking even the IT stocks were under pressure. However, the Metals, Pharma and Oil & Gas stocks were among the top gainers.

Finally, the BSE 30-share Sensex gained 40 points to close at 16,658 and NSE Nifty gained 13 points at 5,000.

Markets in Asia ended mixed; the Nikkei in Japan slipped by 1%, Australia's S&P/ASX ended flat while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 0.7% and Shanghai index in China ended flat.

European indices however were trading in the negative terrain, the DAX in Germany was down 0.2%, the CAC 40 index in France was down 0.3% and the FTSE in the UK was down 0.2%.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, BSE FMCG index was the top loser, down 2.5% followed by BSE IT index, it fell 1.2% and BSE Power index down 0.3%. Among the major gainers were, BSE Metal index gained 1.6%, BSE Pharma index up 1.3% and BSE Oil & Gas index up 1.2%. Even the BSE Mid-Cap index and the BSE Small-Cap index added 0.4% each.

Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were GMDC, Pantaloon, M&M Finance and Aban Offshore. On the other hand, gainers included Marico, GTL, Bajaj Holdings, Cummins India and Bharat Forge.