Markets end with modest gains; ADAG stocks rally

Markets close a highly volatile trade in green, extending gains for the second straight session

Major headlines
RIL recovers on buzz of likely rise in KG-D6 output
Car sales up 22.6% in February
RCom inks deal with Chinese bank



Indian indices
Markets stayed in the positive zone in an extreme volatile trade, extending gains for the second straight session. Support came from gains in the ADAG pack and auto, realty and consumer durables shares. Markets remained rangebound and witnessed a dull session as all the positive cues like political certainty and cooling off crude oil prices seems to have factored in by the markets. Now all global markets are closely watching the price movement of crude oil in international markets due to tensions in Middle East and North Africa.
Firm global cues led the Sensex to begin the trade 83 points higher at 18523 and in no time hit the day's high of 18583. From that level, the index started to trim gains and slipped into negative zone in mid-morning session, hitting the day's low of 18304. The index traded highly volatile and fluctuated between gains and losses for the later part of the day. The Sensex rose 30 points to close at 18470 and the Nifty stood at 5531, up 10 points.

Bond updates: India's 11-year bonds gained for a second day, pushing yields to the lowest level this year, on speculation demand for the securities will increase as the government reduces debt sales.
Market sentiment

The market breadth was strong as out of the 2,977 stocks on the BSE, 1,644 surged while 1,218 fell. Whereas, 114 stocks remained unchanged.

Sectoral and stock screening
Barring BSE IT (down 0.14%) and BSE Healthcare (down 0.36%), all the sectors closed higher. BSE Realty was the top gainer surging 1.74%, followed by BSE Consumer Durables (CD) up by 0.88% and BSE Auto rose by 0.72%.

Looking into 'A' group stocks, Reliance Communications stood the top performer rising 9.36%, followed by Bajaj Finserv up by 6.54% and BGR Energy advanced by 6.36%. Among laggards, Glenmark Pharma slid the most by 3.59%, followed by Engineers India down by 2.60% and Cairn India fell by 2.23%.

Viewing volumes

India’s second largest telecom firm - Reliance Communications was the most traded stock, with over 0.97 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.64 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.62 crore shares), wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.48 crore shares) and Jaypee Group firm - Jaiprakash Associates (0.29 crore shares).

Global signals

European shares traded mixed on Wednesday as investors braced for Portugal's bond auction.
All the major Asian indices ended in the positive territory except Straits Times.

Wall Street set to edge higher today (Wednesday) as the US stock index futures trade in green.