Smart rally on F&O expiry day; Sensex up 252 pts at close

The Indian markets witnessed smart gains at the close on the F&O expiry day. The Sensex rose 252 points and the Nifty gained 70 points.

Major headlines

Food inflation at 9.13% versus 8.84%

German parliament passes expanded euro fund

Sterling Holiday up 10% on stake buy by Jhunjhunwala, Damani

Educomp surges as Citigroup purchases stake

Bharti Airtel enters into deal with Nokia Siemens



Indian indices

The Indian markets recovered in the second half of the trade and closed the F&O expiry day on a strong note. Today’s upmove was led by auto, technology, FMCG, oil & gas and banking stocks. Index heavyweights like JP Associates, HDFC, Infosys, ITC HDFC Bank, ONGC and RIL also contributed to lift the markets higher, with the Nifty closing above the 5000 mark. A spike in food inflation numbers was ignored by the markets.

Sensex movements: Triggered by weak global cues, the Sensex kick-started the trade on a negative note, down by 58 points at 16388. Within minutes of the opening bell, the index extended losses and fell deeper in red to hit fresh intraday lows at 16317. However, buying interest at lower levels pulled the index into the positive terrain in the second half of trade. Later the index gathered momentum and hit fresh intraday highs at 16757 in the late afternoon session. The Sensex went up by 252 points to close at 16698 and the Nifty surged 70 points to settle at 5015.

Market sentiment:

The market breadth stood negative. Of the 2882 stocks traded on the BSE, 1265 (43.89%) rose, 1507 (52.29%) fell and 110 (3.82%) were unchanged.

Viewing volumes

A Jaypee Group firm - Jaiprakash Associates witnessed highest trading with over 0.45 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that India's largest automobile company - Tata Motors (0.32 crore shares), an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.26 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.24 crore shares) and Indian shipbuilder - Pipavav Shipyard (0.21 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Among the 13 sectoral indices, ten closed higher. Gainers - BSE Auto rose by 2.35%, followed by BSE IT up by 2.03% and BSE FMCG advanced by 1.82%. Losers - BSE CD fell by 1.36%, BSE CG declined by 0.89% and BSE HC lost by 0.13%.

In 'A' group stocks, top performers - Jaiprakash Associates rose by 6.29%, Container Corporation Of India advanced by 6.03% and Adani Power surged by 4.61%. Top losers - Sun TV Network dipped by 7.02%, Jubilant Food Works slid by 5.21% and Thermax down by 5.06%.

Global Indices:

The European stocks rose on Thursday after Germany's parliament approved new powers for the euro zone's rescue fund, offering some relief from concerns that deep political divisions are hampering efforts to end the region's debt crisis.

The Asian stocks surged on Thursday, with the regional benchmark index heading for its biggest three-day gain since December 2009, on speculation that German lawmakers will vote to expand a bailout fund for Europe's debt-stricken nations. Hang Seng was shut on Thursday.

The US stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday.

Market outlook: Data releases in the US - GDP, Jobless Claims and P ending Home Sales Index.