Smart Recovery; Sensex surges 159 points at close

After trading volatile for most part of the day, the Indian markets bounced back in late trade, with the Sensex closing 159 points higher and the Nifty up by 50 points

Major headlines

Food inflation at 9.01% vs 10.63%

No immediate decision on fuel price hike: Reddy

FM expects inflation to moderate

Fertiliser stocks in demand

SKS Microfinance hits 5% upper circuit after Akula quits



Indian indices

Volatility was the order of the day on the F&O expiry day. Smart recovery in late trade led to a positive close. Buying emerged in all the sectors following good gains in the European stocks, which lifted the sentiments. However, selling pressure was seen in consumer durables sector. Heavyweights like L&T, Bharti Airtel, TCS, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, M&M and Tata Motors, Maruti and BHEL were the positive contributors to the Sensex.

Signs of stabilisation in the rupee also helped the market pullback, a day after the markets fell to its lowest close in more than two years. A sharp drop in food inflation also soothed investors.

Sensex movements: The Sensex opened the trade on a flat note, up by 16 points at 15716 and then slipped in the negative zone. Further, the index extended losses on selling pressure and touched the day’s low of 15480 in late morning session. Then the index began to trim losses and bounced back to hit the day's high of 15901 in late trade. The Sensex went up by 159 points to close at 15858 and the Nifty stood at 4756, up by 50 points.

Market sentiment:

The market breadth stood in favour of advances. Of the 2892 stocks traded on the BSE, 1460 (50.48%) rose, 1313 (45.40%) fell and 119 (4.11%) remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes:

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most with over 1 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that, Industrial finance company - IFCI (0.66 crore shares), Sugar making company - Shree Renuka Sugars (0.51 crore shares), India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.35 crore shares) and an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.32 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening:

All the sectoral indices closed in green except BSE CD down by 0.21%. Top gainers: BSE Auto rose by 2.45%, BSE CG surged by 2.31% and BSE TECk up by 1.74%.

In 'A' group stocks, biggest gainers — IFCI advanced by 12.82%, Pantaloon Retail (India) up by 12.26% and Indiabulls Financial Services surged by 10.16%. Top losers — Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone fell by 4.68%, SAIL down by 3.19% and HPCL declined by 2.85%.

Global Indices:

The European stock markets surged on Thursday (November 24, 2011), helped by bargain hunting after losing 7% over five sessions, and with a survey that unexpectedly showed German business sentiment rose in November improving sentiment.

The Asian stocks closed higher on Thursday except Nikkei.

The US markets will remain closed on Thursday due to Thanksgiving Day.