Street happy with Infosys nos, ignores weak IIP; Sensex up 422 points

The star of the day was Infosys, which reported results in-line with market’s estimates. The Sensex rallied by 422 points and the Nifty rose by 125 points

Major headlines

Infosys soars on better Q2 results

August IIP at 4.1% versus 3.3%

Further rate hike depends on inflation situation: Gokarn

Amtek India hits 52-week high on bonus issue

Gujarat Automotive hits 5% upper circuit post Q2 nos



Indian indices

The Indian markets put up a good show on the back of a better than expected full year earnings guidance reported by Infosys. A sharp spike was seen in the technology stocks, with Infosys contributing to a major part of today’s rally. Upmove in the global equities too was quite supportive. The Nifty touched the 5100 mark. However, a lower than expected growth in industrial production was ignored by the markets.

Sensex movements: The Sensex began the session 124 points higher at 16660 and traded in a narrow range with a positive bias in the morning trade on heavy gains in the technology stocks. In the early afternoon session, the index trimmed some gains after the weak IIP data coupled with negative European cues and hit the day’s low of 16609. Later the index moved higher on all- round buying and recovery in the European stocks to hit the day’s high of 16987 in late trade. The Sensex shut shop at 16958, up by 422 points and the Nifty rose by 125 points to close at 5099.

Market sentiment:

The market breadth stood healthy. Of the 2935 stocks traded on the BSE, 1846 (62.90%) rose, 974 (33.19%) fell and 115 (3.92%) remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

All the 13 sectoral indices closed on a strong note. BSE IT was the star performer surging by 5.21%, BSE TECk rose by 3.83% and BSE Bankex gained by 3.38%. Remaining 10 advanced in the range of 1.06-2.97%.

In 'A' group stocks, biggest gainers — United Breweries advanced by 13.37%, Jubilant Foodworks rose by 9.58% and Infosys surged by 6.83%. Major losers — Sun TV Network down by 2.71%, MOIL declined by 2.25% and Wockhardt fell by 2.23%.

Viewing volumes

Indian shipbuilder - Pipavav Shipyard saw highest trading with over 0.40 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that India's largest automobile company – Tata Motors (0.36 crore shares), India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.28 crore shares), a multi-business conglomerate - ITC (0.24 crore shares) and industrial finance company – IFCI (0.24 crore shares).

Global Indices

The European shares extended gains on Wednesday (October 12, 2011), hitting their highest in more than five weeks, with miners among the top gainers, helped by higher metals prices and better than expected economic data. Investors pinned their hopes on a plan to recapitalize ailing European banks.

The Asian stocks closed on a positive note on Wednesday as gains for Chinese banks worked to offset losses connected to weak results from the US aluminum giant Alcoa and a snag for Europe's bailout-fund expansion.

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

Market Outlook: In the US, FOMC Minutes will be out on Wednesday.