Nifty closes near 3-month high, crosses 5900

The Indian markets moved higher all through the day on the back of consistent inflow of funds from FIIs, with the Nifty crossing the 5900 mark.

Major headlines

BHEL rallies on strong provisional FY11 numbers

RCom, DB Realty, Unitech slip on 2G scam charges

Cairn-Vedanta deal may get nod on Wednesday



Indian indices

Markets continued its upmove after one-day pause and closed the session on an upbeat note. Good global cues and robust inflows from foreign institutional investors led the Sensex to cross 19700 levels and the Nifty above the 5900 mark - near to three-month highs. Buying was visible across the board, with major support coming in from capital goods, technology and auto stocks. The Indian markets continued to outperform global peers amid low volumes.

BSE Midcap Index was up 1.67% and BSE Smallcap Index moved 2.83% higher.

M&M, Jaiprakash Associates, BHEL, HDFC Bank and TCS were the top Sensex gainers. Reliance Communications, Hindustan Lever, Cipla, Sterlite Industries and Reliance Infra were amongst the top Sensex losers.

The Sensex began the trade 54 points higher at 19474 on strong global support. In mid-morning session, the index trimmed some gains and hit the day’s low of 19449. From the lower level, the Sensex moved upwards and did not turn back, hitting the day’s high of 19730 in the afternoon session. The Sensex shut shop at 19702, up by 281 points and the Nifty rose 82 points to settle at 5908.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood extremely strong. Of the 2,988 stocks traded on the BSE, 2,437 (81.56%) surged while 477 (15.96%) fell. However, 74 (2.48%) stocks remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most, with over 0.56 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.52 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.29 crore shares), power & infrastructure firm - GVK Power & Infrastructure (0.24 crore shares) and infrastructure major - Punj Lloyd (0.22 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

All the sectors rallied, with BSE Capital Goods (CG) surging the most by 2.38%. Following that BSE Information Technology (IT) rose by 2.18% and BSE TECk advanced by 1.84%. Remaining sectors gained in the range of 0.29-1.83%.

On 'A' group stocks’ fronts, top three gainers were - BGR Energy Systems rose by 7.47%, Alstom Projects India surged by 7.36% and IL&FS Transportation Networks advanced by 6.28%. Top three losers were - D B Realty fell by 2.32%, Reliance Communications declined by 2.24% and Hindustan Unilever lost by 1.62%.

Global signals

The European stocks rose on Monday as merger activity kept the market's three-week rally going ahead of an expected interest rate rise by the European Central Bank seen as supportive for European equities.

The Asian indices rose to their highest in nearly three years on Monday after strong US jobs growth boosted optimism about the global economy. China's Shanghai Composite was shut today.

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