Sensex regains 20K on strong FII inflows

Major headlines

Sun Pharmaceutical board approves stock split; the stock closes higher by 1.71%

Roman Tarmat zooms on order win; the stock ends 3.72% higher

Aurobindo Pharma gets USFDA nod for three ANDAs; the stock closes higher by 1.41%



Indian indices

Bulls charged up again after taking a breather in the previous two sessions. The domestic markets snapped two-day losing streak and advanced, as investors judged that the nation's economic growth outlook provides a haven for equities after a drop in the US jobless rates damped the outlook for global expansion. The Nifty and the Sensex managed to close above the important levels of 6000 and 20000, respectively. Foreign institutional investors have been leading the markets since June 2010 to take near 32-month highs. Today's runaway gainers in the trades were realty and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks and even the broader markets remained positive.

FMCG, financial, realty, telecom, capital goods, select technology and auto companies' shares were helping the markets to post significant gains. On the other side, the selling continued in Jindal Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Cairn India, Tata Motors, Ambuja Cements, and GAIL. Hindustan Unilever, the local unit of the world's second-largest consumer-goods maker, climbed for a seventh day to its highest level. DLF, the nation's biggest real estate developer, advanced by 5.4%, its steepest gain since May.

The Sensex began the session 25 points lower at 19836 and soon hit the day's low of 19833 in initial trades. However, from that level the index erased all its losses and hovered between the negative and positive terrain in early trades. The Sensex regained strength in mid-morning session as the Asian stocks turned positive. The Sensex gathered momentum in the afternoon session and started to extend gains. The index hit the day's high of 20072 in late trade as buying intensified in realty and FMCG stocks.

At the closing bell, the Sensex closed at 20045, 184 points higher. The Nifty ended at 6018, up by 59 points.

Bond and Rupee update: India's rupee headed for a fourth weekly gain and benchmark bonds rose after policy makers yesterday raised the cap on overseas investments in government and corporate securities.

Market Outlook: Tonight in the US, we have durable goods and new home sales data.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was strong as advancing stocks outnumbered the declining ones. Out of the 3,084 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,836 advanced while 1,131 declined. Hundred and seventeen stocks remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Buying across the broad helped all the 13 sector indices to close in the green. BSE Realty was the topper, gained by 2.78%, followed by BSE FMCG that rose by 1.79% and BSE Consumer Durables (CD) surged by 1.67%. Rest of the indices ended higher in the range of 0.30-0.98%.

Among 'A' group stocks, the top three gainers were - Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) was the major gainer, up by 5.29%, followed by DLF that surged by 5.18% and Federal Bank rose by 5.18%. The top three losers were - Financial Technologies slid the most by 11% after SEBI rejected MCX-SX’s application, followed by Tech Mahindra that slipped by 3.37% and Ispat Industries declined by 1.94%.

Viewing volumes

Leading integrated steel makers - Ispat Industries was the most traded with over 1.30 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by industrial finance company - IFCI (0.58 crore shares), India’s second largest developer - Unitech (0.40 crore shares), public sector bank - IDBI Bank (0.40 crore shares) and largest basmati rice processing and marketing company in the globe - REI Agro (0.35 crore shares).

Global signals

The European shares dropped for the fourth straight day, as mining stocks edged lower and the latest US jobless claims figures added to persistent concerns that the global economic recovery was still fragile.

All the major Asian indices closed in the positive territory except Japan's Nikkei index. China's Shanghai Composite index was shut today.

The US stock index futures signal towards a higher opening on the Wall Street tonight, ahead of the durable goods data and new home sales data for August.