Market ends F&O expiry day with modest gains

The Indian markets carried previous session’s gains in today’s trade and closed the session with modest gains. The Sensex up 81 points and the Nifty up 31 points.

Headlines for the day

Kale Consultants soars on buyback plan

Biocon Q3 consolidated net profit falls 16%

Patni Computer hits 52-week high after Q4 numbers

Union Bank declines on drop in Q3 net profit



Indian indices

The Indian markets witnessed volatility on the F&O expiry day and remained in green led by major support from metal, technology, auto and PSU stocks. Persistent buying in index heavyweights like Infosys, Tata Motors, RIL, HDFC, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Coal India and TCS led the upmove. The Sensex settled above the psychological 17000 level for the first time in more than 10 weeks.

Sensex movement: The Sensex started the trade 73 points higher at 17069 and remained in green amid volatility. In mid afternoon session, the index touched an intraday high at 17130 led by buying across the board. The Sensex shut shop at 17077, up by 81 points and the Nifty closed 31 points higher at 5158.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood positive. Of the 2974 stocks traded on the BSE, 1808 (60.79%) rose, 1040 (34.97%) dropped and 126 (4.24%) remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most, with over 0.62 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that, one of the largest listed real estate companies in India - Indiabulls Real Estate (0.50 crore shares), India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.45 crore shares), the world’s largest producer of plastic water tank- Sintex Industries (0.43 crore shares) and industrial finance company – IFCI (0.37 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

All the sectoral indices stood in green except BSE CG down by 0.33%. Top performers — BSE Metal up by 1.79%, BSE PSU up by 1.24% and BSE TECk up by 1.20%.

Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers — United Spirits advanced by 13.96%, Aurobindo Pharma rose by 8.47% and Sintex Industries up by 7.59%. Top three losers — Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone down by 4.40%, Biocon declined by 3.25% and Indian Overseas Bank fell by 2.99%.

Global Indices:

The European stock markets declined on Wednesday (January 25, 2012), weighed down by the tech sector after a sharp post-results decline for World No.1 mobile gear maker Ericsson, and as investors worried that Greece may face a disastrous default.

The Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday on robust earnings from Apple Inc. and better-than-expected euro-zone economic data. Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices remained shut.

The US stock index futures pointed to a mixed open for equities on the Wall Street on Wednesday.

Market Outlook: In the US, FOMC Meeting Announcement and Chairman Press Conference will be in focus on Wednesday.