Sensex ekes out slim gains...Nifty above 5300

The Indian markets kick started the March F&O series with smart gains even, as Mamata Banerjee's largely populist Railway Budget was countered by an upbeat Economic Survey. But, today's gains didn't come all that easy with the key indices turning highly volatile in the afternoon before finishing marginally higher.



The NSE Nifty managed to close above 5300 and the BSE Sensex closed at 17,700. Banking and FMCG shares were the top gainers followed by Auto. On the flip side, IT stocks extended this week's fall. The BSE Mid-Cap and the BSE Small-Cap indices witnessed some selling pressure, dragging down the market breadth into the negative territory.

It was a highly volatile trading session, with the Nifty swinging over 60 points intraday and the BSE Sensex oscillating almost 350 points between its intraday highs and intraday lows.

"The overall undertone may continue to be a little nervous, and so one needs to be very watchful before jumping the gun. One has no option but to wait for a trend reversal to take hold. We expect the downward pressure to prevail in the near term and do not rule out the Nifty re-testing its intermediate low of 5177. Union Budget will be an important event next week. At the same time, one can't afford to ignore the external developments, especially in the Middle-East," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex rose 69 points to end at 17,701 and the NSE Nifty gained by 40 points to close at 5,303.

Meanwhile, most of the railway related shares fell in reaction to what was a fairly muted Railway Budget.

The European markets were also trading in the green, the FTSE index was up 0.3%, CAC index was up 0.9% and DAX index was up 0.5%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Areva, United Spirits, Jet Air and Sun Tv. On the other hand, losers included Mphasis, Tata Comm, Andhra Bank and GTL Infra.