Sensex on 7th heaven...Realty & Banks shine

The Indian market extended the recent rally to a seventh successive trading session on Wednesday amid strong cues from the international equity markets and robust FII inflows. Also, the much-awaited technical breakout above the 200-DMA this week seems to have sparked further buying. F&O indicators have also improved, with the bears having to cover their shorts ahead of the settlement on Thursday.



The Indian markets remained strong in the first half of the day with the NSE Nifty hovering around 5800 levels. However, there was a brief period in late afternoon when the key indices lost a bit of ground before recovering again.

For a change, the broader indices outpaced gains in the Large-Cap peers after being on the sidelines for the past few sessions. The BSE Small-Cap and the BSE Mid-Cap indices climbed 2.2% and 1.5%, respectively.

The bullish trend in the Indian equities was in sync with the broad-based global rally in stocks amid signs that Japanese companies are recovering from the aftereffects of earthquake and tsunami. Also, the US economy remains on track for a gradual recovery.

"After a series of strong days, the Indian market may witness some cooling at some point and consolidate around 5700 levels. A breach of 5800 on a sustainable basis might confirm a short-term trend reversal. Global risk appetite also seems to be improving slowly but surely," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex ended at 19,290 gaining 169 points. It had earlier touched a day's high of 19,357 and a day's low of 19,178. It opened at 19,178. While, the NSE Nifty rose 51 points to close at 5,787.

The gainers among the BSE and NSE were Ambuja Cement, DLF, PNB, J P Associate, ACC, SBIN, M&M, Cipla, HDFC, Dr Reddy, GAIL, HDFC Bank, TCS, Wipro and Jindal Steel.

While, Hindalco, Cairn, SAIL, IDFC, Rel Capital, ONGC, HCL Tech, BPCL, BHEL, ITC, Bharti Airtel and Siemens remianed the losers on the BSE and NSE.

The notable gainers on the BSE 500 index were D B Realty, Ballarpur Industries, IVR Prime, Arvind, and JK Lakshmi Cement.

Whereas, Parsvnath Dev, Sunteck Realty, KGN Industries, Karuturi Global and Shree Global Tradefin were the notable losers on the BSE 500 index.

The market breadth was decisively positive with 2,057 shares rising, while 801 shares declined on the BSE.

Every paper stocks worth its salt were up and about today after International Paper announced the acquisition of AP Paper Mills for US$423mn. AP Paper Mills stock was locked in the 20% upper circuit.

Separately, shares of PTC Financial Services had a bad debut on the bourses, with the stock slipping as much as 16%. It finally ended below the issue price of Rs. 28 per share.

In global action, Asian stock indices were mostly up, with the Nikkei in Japan up 2.6%. Even the Chinese market, which was down earlier, recovered by the close. In Europe, the Dax in Germany rose 1.6% while the FTSE in London was up 0.5%. The CAC in France gained ~1%. US stock futures were pointing to a higher start on Wall Street.