Sensex shuts firm as global markets rebound

Today's major news

Reliance Communications Q1 consolidated net profit dips 85% yoy; the stock ends 2.94% lower

Tata Steel shines on strong Q1 results; the stock closes 1.39% up

Jet Airways flies high on strong July traffic; the stock ends 11.27% higher



Global signals

The European shares fell on Friday (August 13, 2010) as falls in retailers outweighed gains in the miners, with Delhaize slipping after the supermarket group cut its 2010 outlook.

The Asian indices ended the session higher except Hang Seng that closed down by 0.16%. SGX Nifty closed 28 points higher.

The positive US futures pointed towards a strong start on the Wall Street on Friday. The markets players will be awaiting for Consumer Price Index, Business Inventories, Retail Sales and University of Michigan Confidence data, which will be released today.

Indian indices

Indian markets closed the last day of the week on a strong note after a good session of trade. Buying in heavyweights like Tata Steel, State Bank of India (SBI) and healthy global cues supported the upmove. Positive opening of the European stocks on the back of better gross domestic products data from Germany and France also led to momentum.

The nation’s biggest steel producer, Tata Steel, climbed by 1.5% after posting first-quarter net income from the last year’s losses owing to reviving demand from automobile makers and engineering companies. The nation’s largest public sector bank, SBI, extended gains on the second consecutive day after posting its fastest profit growth in four quarters and also the government approved bill to lower its stake in the bank. Other heavyweight, Reliance Industries broke its losing streak and ended the session with significant gains.

The Sensex began the day marginally higher by 7 points at 18080. The Sensex briefly slipped into the negative terrain to hit the day’s low of 18050 in few minutes of opening trade. The index soon turned positive and gradually gathered the momentum in its morning trades as the Asian indices erased its early losses. In the afternoon session, the Sensex started to widen its gains to hit the day’s high of 18260 as the European stocks opened in the green. However, in the late trades as the European markets lost some of its early momentum, the index partially gave away some of its gains, but still managed to close in the positive terrain.

At the closing bell, the Sensex closed at 18167, 93 points higher. The Nifty shut at 5452, 36 points higher.

Bond Market Wrap Up: India’s 10-year bonds dropped, pushing yields to the highest level in a week, on speculation that the investors refrained from adding to their holdings ahead of a government debt sale today. India’s rupee was headed for its biggest weekly slide in more than a month on concern that investors will pare holdings of riskier emerging-market assets as the global economic recovery flounders.

Market Outlook: It is a big data night with the US releasing retail sales, business inventories, the consumer price index and a consumer confidence survey.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was firm, as the advancing shares dominated the trailing ones. Out of the 3,085 shares on the BSE, 1,517 shares (49.17%) advanced and 1,434 shares (46.48%) trailed. Hundred and thirty-four shares (4.34%) closed unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

All the 13 sectors performed well except BSE Metal that ended marginally lower by 0.15%. BSE Realty was the top performer, gained by 2.31% as the index heavyweight DLF strengthened by 2.1% at Rs322. The second gainer - BSE consumer durables (CD) - grew by 1.86%. BSE Bankex surged by 1.40%, supported by the index heavyweight State Bank of India, which rose by above 2%. Rest of the sectors gained in the range of 0.16% to 1.10%.

In 'A' group stocks, the toppers' were - Jet Air India touched the new 52-week high gaining 11.27% on strong July traffic, Jai Corp surged 8.25% higher on reporting good quarterly numbers and Indian Hotels rose by 6.16%.

The losers were - Sterlite Industries down by 4.26% on news that its parent Vedanta may buy majority stake in Cairn India, Reliance Communications slipped by 2.94% and Shriram Transport Finance Company declined by 2.85%.

Viewing volumes

Industrial finance company - IFCI was the most actively traded share with over 0.75 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.46 crore shares), India's largest non-ferrous metals and mining company - Sterlite Industries (0.44 crore shares), leading wind power company - Suzlon Energy (0.37 crore shares) and iron and steel industry - Jai Corp (0.34 crore shares).