Sensex closes 197 pts higher on F&O expiry day

May series settlement day ends well for markets owing to buying interest in oil & gas, metal, auto shares alongwith good global cues

Major headlines

Food inflation at 8.55% versus 7.47%

BGR Energy FY11 consolidated net profit jumps 60%

Canara Bank consolidated net profit soars 34% in FY11



Indian indices

The Indian markets posted good gains on the May F&O expiry day. Positive global cues coupled with investors buying index heavyweight stocks led the Sensex and the Nifty to close above 18000 and 5400 levels respectively. Major support came in from oil & gas shares alongwith metal, auto, realty, PSU and capital goods pushing the key indices higher.

Firm Asian cues led to a positive start on the Dalal Street, with the Sensex rising 70 points at 17917. Later the index trimmed some gains and touched the day’s low of 17863 in early trade. From lower level, the Sensex climbed higher and remained in the green zone, hitting the day’s high of 18073 in late trade. The Sensex stood at 18045, rose by 197 points and the Nifty closed at 5412, up by 63 points.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood in favour of advances. Of the 2,896 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,496 rose while 1,275 fell. However, 125 stocks remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

A financial institution specializing in lending to power projects - Power Finance Corporation was traded the most, with over 0.94 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.40 crore shares), India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.23 crore shares), an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.18 crore shares) and India's largest and fastest growing food service company - Jubilant FoodWorks (0.16 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Nine sectors closed the session higher, while four declined. BSE Oil & Gas outperformed the sectoral indices, up 2.90%. Following that BSE Metal rose by 1.50% and BSE Auto surged by 1.49%. On the other side, BSE Consumer Durables (CD) dropped by 0.78%, followed by BSE Information Technology (IT) slipped by 0.19% and BSE TECk declined by 0.12%.

Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were - Jubilant FoodWorks moved higher by 7.86%, Dish TV India rose by 5.03% and Indiabulls Real Estate surged by 5.02%. Top three losers were - Shree Renuka Sugars went down by 3.68%, Ispat Industries slipped by 3.37% and GVK Power & Infrastructure declined by 3.26%.

Global signals

The European markets were trading almost mixed on Thursday. The markets gave up some gains from the previous session, and strategists said the market would remain rangebound until there was some sort of resolution to the euro zone debt crisis.

The Asian indices closed higher on Thursday except Shanghai Composite index. Nikkei rose 1.5% from a two-month closing low hit the previous day.

The US stock index futures signal to a higher opening on the Wall Street on Thursday.

Market Outlook: US GDP and Jobless Claims data will be announced on Thursday.