Sensex cracks a ton...Nifty ends near 200-DMA

After enjoying its best week of the calendar year, the Indian markets started off the new trading week with healthy gains. Last week's momentum spilled over into today's session, with the NSE Nifty breaching its 200 DMA (5691 levels). on an intraday basis. However, it was unable to sustain above the crucial technical level and ended just under it.

Banking, Auto, and Capital Goods stocks led the rally today. Select Mid-Caps were also in the groove. On the other hand, Pharma and Realty stocks were under pressure. The BSE Small-Cap stocks were rather subdued. The market breadth was actually weak, raising concern on the sustainability of the current rally.



"The strength in the Indian market today was in contrast with a lackluster trend in Asian and European markets. The undertone has improved a little in the past few days on the back of strong FII inflows, tabling of long pending reform-centric bills in parliament and resilient world equities. This week is an important week due to the F&O expiry. A string of key economic reports will also be released this week," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex ended at 18,943 gaining 126 points. It had earlier touched a day's high of 19,024 and a day's low of 18,799. It opened at 18,799. While, the NSE Nifty rose 33 points to close at 5,687.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Auto index was the top gainer, the index gained 1.5% followed by BSE Capital Goods index adding 1.2%, while, BSE Banking index gained 1.2%. BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.4%, while the BSE Small-Cap index ended almost unchanged.

The BSE 500 gainers of the day were Sterlite Tech, Parsvnath Dev, LIC Housing Finance, Uflex, Unichem Lab, Great Offshore, Mahindra & Mahindra Finance, Sundaram Fast and Torrent Pharma.

While, D B Realty, Shree Global Tradefin, Kiri Dyes, Den Network, Aurobindo Pharma and Glodyne Tech were the notable losers on the BSE 500.

The European markets were trading with a slight positive bias, the FTSE index was up 0.2%, CAC index was flat and DAX index was down 0.2%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were LIC Housing, M&M Fin, Tata Comm, IDBI Bank and IRB Infra. On the other hand, losers included DB Realty, Aurobindo Pharma, Jubilanf Life and Pantaloon Retail.