Markets continue strong run; Sensex gains 218 pts

Again it turned out to be a strong day for markets led by sustained buying in heavyweights and sectors

Major headlines

Sugar shares rise on export clearance

Wockhardt gets stay on winding up order from Bombay High Court

Bank of Maharashtra rises as members approve preferential issue



Indian indices

The Indian markets maintained its uptrend for the second successive day as investors bought stocks across the board. Strong support from index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Cipla, Infosys, BHEL, Bharti Airtel and ITC led the Sensex to close above the 18000 mark. Realty, banking and pharma stocks were leading the markets higher. The markets kept its head high all through the day shrugging off unsupportive global cues.

The Sensex began the session 16 points lower at 17972 and immediately hit the day’s low of 17950. However from that level, the Sensex moved upwards and remained in the positive zone for the rest of the day amid tight range. The index hit the day’s high of 18218 in late trade on all-round buying. The Sensex closed at 18206, up by 218 points and the Nifty rose by 66 points at 5480.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood strong for the second straight session, with 1,650 shares advancing and 1,194 losing out of the 2,979 stocks traded on the BSE. Whereas, 135 stocks closed unchanged.

Sectoral and stock screening

All the 13 sectoral indices ended in the positive territory. BSE Realty was the major gainer for the second consecutive day, surging by 1.92%. Following that BSE Bankex rose by 1.85% and BSE Healthcare (HC) up by 1.51%. Other sectors rallied in the range of 0.05-1.33%.

On 'A' group stocks’ front, Tata Communications was the star performer, surging by 11.90%, then comes Hindustan Oil Exploration up by 10.35% and Pantaloon Retail jumped 6.96%. Among losers, DB Realty fell the most by 8.85%, followed by Motherson Sumi down by 2.69% and NCC lost by 1.80%.

Viewing volumes

Leading oil exploration firm - Hindustan Oil Exploration was traded the most, with over 0.33 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.28 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.27 crore shares), Jaypee group flagship company - Jaiprakash Associates (0.27 crore shares) and leading infrastructure firm - Lanco Infratech (0.24 crore shares).

Global signals

European shares edged higher on Wednesday, led by miners as the price of copper and other metals rose on upbeat comments on the demand outlook from senior executives in the industry.

The Asian indices ended mixed on Wednesday. Indices like Hang Seng, Nikkei and Kospi fell whereas Shanghai Composite, Jakarta Composite and Straits Times surged.

The US stock index futures signal lower opening on the Wall Street tonight (Wednesday).

Market Outlook: In the US, there is data release of New Home Sales.