Markets celebrate unchanged credit policy

Tracking negative Asian cues the Sensex opened weak at 13894, down 34 points over the previous close, and slipped further to touch the day's low of 13850. The market remained subdued ahead of the Reserve Bank India's (RBI) annual credit policy announcement. The Sensex gained momentum closer to the credit policy announcement and zoomed on reports that the RBI has kept all the key rates unchanged in its annual monetary and credit policy. The Sensex jumped to touch the day's high of 14197, gaining 269 points from its previous close on the back of hectic buying in banking stocks. The market shed some gains towards the close on profit bookings in Sensex heavyweights and information technology stocks. The Sensex finally ended the session with gains of 208 points at 14137 while the Nifty added 57 points to close at 4142.

The breadth of the market was neutral. Of the 2,627 stocks traded on the BSE 1,279 stocks declined, 1,273 stocks advanced and 75 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Bankex flared up by 4.06% and the BSE Auto Index gained 1.65%. The other sectoral indices were up around 1% each while the BSE IT index ended in negative territory.

The rally in the market was led by Ramco Systems, which shot up by 19.98% to Rs160. Among the major gainers, SBI advanced by 6.88% to Rs1,133, Bharti Airtel moved up by 3.88% to Rs874, Tata Steel added 3.86% to Rs579, Gujarat Ambuja Cement scaled up by 3.74% to Rs119 and ICICI Bank jumped 3.65% to Rs850. Select index stocks witnessed selling pressure. Wipro was the major loser and dropped 2.23% to Rs554. BHEL fell by 1.75% to Rs2494, TCS declined by 1.63% to Rs1226, Satyam Computer slipped by 1.19% to Rs475 and Dr Reddy's was down 1.11% at Rs712. Grasim, NTPC and Infosys also ended in the red.

Banking stocks witnessed sharp buying support. Canara Bank vaulted by 9.52% to Rs221, Oriental Bank advanced 8.37% to Rs208, Bank of India flared up by 7.40% to Rs197 and Punjab National Bank gained 6.83% at Rs506. Bank of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Andhra Bank and Union Bank were up 3-6% each.

Over 95.53 lakh Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (78.05 lakh shares), Indiabulls Real Estate (70.48 lakh shares), GV Films (65.22 lakh shares) and Germach Infrastructure Equipment (51.02 lakh shares).

Tata Steel was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs241 crore followed by Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs226 crore), SBI (Rs176 crore), Unitech (Rs156 crore) and HDFC Bank (Rs130 crore).