Markets up for 5th day, close at two-month high

Major headlines

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Indian indices

The Indian markets continued its upswing for the fifth session in a row, hitting fresh two-month high. Gains in capital goods, auto and financials supported the markets. Profit booking was seen in pharmaceuticals, realty and metals space. The Sensex touched the 19000 mark and the Nifty hit 5700 levels in trade today.

Mixed Asian cues led the Sensex down by 16 points at 18799.71 in the opening trade and in no time hit the day's low of 18799.57. From that level, the Sensex moved upwards amid volatility for the rest of the day. In the afternoon session, the index hit the day's high of 19024. The Sensex rose 128 points to close at 18943 and the Nifty stood at 5687, up by 33 points.

Rupee and bond update: India’s rupee weakened for the first time in seven days on speculation that local importers will step up foreign-currency purchases to settle quarter-end bills. It touched 44.61 on March 25, the strongest level seen since January 04. India’s 11-year bonds advanced for the fifth day after the government unveiled its debt sale plan for the first-half of the fiscal year starting April 01.

Market sentiment

Despite of positive closing, the market breadth stood negative. Of the 3,053 stocks on the BSE, 1,243 gained while 1,724 fell. However, 86 stocks remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

Industrial finance company - IFCI was traded the most, with over 0.65 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by leading housing finance firm - LIC Housing Finance (0.60 crore shares), wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.53 crore shares), India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.41 crore shares) and public sector bank - Central Bank (0.21 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Eight sectoral indices closed higher and five ended lower. BSE Auto was the top gainer, rising by 1.52%, BSE Capital Goods rose by 1.27% and BSE Bankex surged by 1.21%. On the flip side, BSE Healthcare was the top loser, declining by 1.17%, BSE Realty fell by 0.56% and BSE Metal lost by 0.29%

Coming to 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were - LIC Housing Finance rose by 7.93%, Mahindra & Mahindra Finance surged by 5.52% and Tata Communications advanced by 4.69%. Top three losers were - D B Realty slipped by 14.02%, Aurobindo Pharma declined by 5.84% and Jubilant Life Sciences declined by 3.74%.

Global signals

The European markets were trading mixed on Monday.

The Asian indices ended mixed on Monday. Japan's Nikkei fell by 0.60% after reports of soaring radiation levels at a damaged nuclear plant.

The US stock index futures point to a higher opening on the Wall Street today (Monday).

Market Outlook: Pending Home Sales data and Personal Income & Outlays data will be announced in the US today.