Nifty ends above 6000...Sensex recaptures 20000

The benchmark Indian stock indices ended above key psychological levels as the Euphoria continued on Dalal Street. Markets extended recent gains ahead of the FOMC meet tonight and the upswing was led by IT, Telecom and Capital Goods stocks.



Triple digit gains in the US and strong rebound in the European markets acted as sentiment booster. However, important factor to look at is that the market breadth was negative on the BSE with 1773 declines against 1120 advances.

"It would be wise to be a bit cautious at this stage as the recent surge has been a little too fast (though not as fast as Nov. 2007) and therefore calls for some consolidation," says Amar Ambani, Vice President, Research – India Private Clients, IIFL.

The Sensex surged 95 points to close at 20,001. The index hit an intra-day high of 20,088 and an intra-day low of 19,861. While, the NSE Nifty rose 28 points to close at 6,008 after touching a high of 6,033 and a low of 5,961.

Within the Sensex and Nifty, the top gainers included TCS, Wipro, Tata Power, Tata Motors, Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The notable losers in the two main indices were ITC, Unitech, Suzlon, Jaiprakash Associates, DLF, Reliance Infra, Jindal Steel, Hindalco and RCOM.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the IT index was the top gainer, rising 2.5%, followed by the BSE Teck index (up 1.7%) and BSE Capital Goods index (up 1.1%) and BSE Pharma index (up 1%).

On the other hand, the broader indices were under pressure, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1% and BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.3%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers were Marico, Rolta, IVRCL Infra, Essar Oil, Mphasis, VIP, 3i Infotech, CMC, IBN18, Bombay Dyeing, Omaxe and Educomp.

On the other hand, main losers in the broader market included Redington, TVS, Kingfisher Airlines, IL&FS Transportation, Orchid, Dewan Housing, Gateway Distriparks, Essar Shipping, REC, Godrej Consumer, GMDC, Ispat Ind, Gujarat NRE Coke, Whirlpool, Mercator Lines and JSW Energy.

Markets in Asia ended mixed; the Nikkei in Japan was down 0.3%, Australia's S&P/ASX ended lower 0.3%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended flat and the Shanghai SE Composite ended flat.

The European indices were trading in the green, the DAX in Germany was up 0.5%, the CAC 40 index in France was up 0.5% and FTSE index in UK gained 0.3%.