Markets end Sept series on a high

Major headlines

Food inflation rises to 16.44%

State Bank of India keeps base rate unchanged at 7.5%; the stock ends higher by 1.22%

Mahindra Satyam slumps on reporting losses; the stock closes 8.90% lower



Indian indices

The domestic markets ended the September series on a strong note. The markets saw a sharp spike in the last half-an-hour of trade after a choppy trade, with a negative bias since morning and finally shut the session higher. It was a historical session for the Indian markets wherein it clocked the highest ever turnover; total traded turnover on exchanges reported at over Rs2.3 lakh crore. The F&O turnover crossed over Rs2 lakh crore. The Nifty and the Sensex managed to regain their psychological levels of 6000 and 20000, respectively on the back of a late surge in trade, with buying in banks, metals, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) lifting the markets higher at the close.

Heavyweights like Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys Technologies, NTPC, Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel were putting pressure on the markets. Housing Development Finance Corporation rallied by 3%. ITC, Cairn, Sterlite Industries, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank, Cipla, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Hindalco Industries and GAIL were the only gainers.

The Sensex began the session 25 points lower at 19931. The index briefly turned positive in initial trades. However the gains remained short-lived as index soon slipped in to the negative zone. The Sensex traded in the red throughout the morning session, with the Sensex hitting the day’s low of 19864. The Sensex turned choppy with a negative bias in the afternoon trades. In the last hour of trades, the Sensex erased all its losses and turned positive, hitting the day’s high of 20115 as late buying was seen in banking, metal and FMCG stocks.

At the finishing line, the Sensex shut at 20069, 113 points higher. The Nifty ended at 6030, up by 39 points.

Bond and Rupee update: Markets were closed today for half-yearly closing of banking accounts.

Market Outlook: In the US tonight, initial jobless claims and revised second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) will be out.

Market sentiment

Despite of positive closing by the domestic indices, the market breadth was weak as declining stocks outdid the advancing ones. Out of the 3,073 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,644 declined while 1,309 advanced. Hundred and twenty stocks remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Of the 13 sectoral indices on the BSE, seven rallied while six posted losses. BSE FMCG was the top gainer, up by 1.40%, followed by the BSE Metal that surged by 0.82%. On the other hand, BSE Oil & Gas lost the most by 1.17%, followed by BSE Consumer Durables (CD) that declined by 0.89%.

On the ‘A’ group stocks' front, GTL Infrastructure surged the most by 3.55%, followed by Godrej Properties that rose by 3.46% and Housing Development Finance Corporation gained by 3.29%. On the losers’ side, Patni Computer Systems fell the most by 5.02%, followed by Tech Mahindra that slid by 4.65% and Ambuja Cements slipped by 4.25%.

Viewing volumes

India’s biggest copper and zinc producer - Sterlite Industries was the most traded, with over 0.39 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by wind turbine major- Suzlon Energy (0.37 crore shares), India’s second largest developer - Unitech (0.28 crore shares), sugar major- Shree Renuka Sugars (0.21 crore shares) and industrial finance company - IFCI (0.17 crore shares).

Global signals

The European shares fell for a fourth straight session today, with concerns about deeper fiscal cuts in Ireland and Moody's downgrade of Spain's government bond ratings keeping investors cautious.

The major Asian indices closed mixed. Indices like Shanghai Composite, Jakarta Composite and Kospi shut in the positive territory while Hang Seng, Nikkei and Straits Times ended in the negative territory.

The US stock index futures signal towards a lower opening on the Wall Street tonight, ahead of the second quarter GDP, weekly jobless claims and Chicago PMI data for September.