Benchmarks close near intraday highs; Sensex regains 20,000 mark

Energetic benchmarks exhibited an enthusiastic performance by rallying over one and a half percentage points and breaking a lot of psychological levels in their bull run on first day of F&O expiry week. There appeared not even a bit of profit booking in the session as the benchmarks managed to fervently gain from strength to strength as investors continued to hunt for fundamentally strong but oversold stocks. Frontline indices managed to finish the session near its intraday high and settled above 6,050 (Nifty) and 20,000 (Sensex) bastions as investors took to hefty across the board buying.

Sentiments got some support from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement that government is trying to remove investment bottlenecks, which is holding up the growth. He further added that India’s economic growth would accelerate to 6-6.5 percent in the current financial year as compared to around five percent growth registered in the previous year. Sentiments got buttressed after index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) surged over five per cent to post its biggest percentage gain since September 2012, after the oil & gas major and its partners BP and NIKO announced a significant gas and condensate discovery in the KG D6 block off the eastern coast of India. 

Rally got extended at D-street in late hours supported by firm opening in European markets. CAC and DAX traded with traction in early deals, reversing the previous week’s slide triggered by concerns on the future of the US monetary stimulus. Though, Asian markets ended mixed with Chinese benchmark closing the session in green; however investors remained cautious after new data pointed to an uncertain pace of recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

Back home, markets continued to trade jubilantly supported by buying in PSU counter as the government is working out norms for utilization of surplus funds of cash-rich PSUs with a view to boost investment and promote growth. Stocks related to fast moving consumer goods sector too remained on the buyers’ radar on report that the monsoon is expected to hit Kerala’s coast on June 03, 2013. Monsoon had brought its first showers to the Andaman Sea on May 17, three days before the normal onset date. Additionally, telecom stocks remained in demand on reports that Reliance Communications (RCom) raised basic rates for both GSM and CDMA prepaid mobile-to-mobile calls by 33 per cent to 2 paise per second from 1.5 paise per second.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose by about one hundred points to end above the psychological 6,050 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex surged by over three hundred and twenty points to finish above the psychological 20,000 mark. Moreover, broader markets too traded with traction during the trade and snapped the session in green.

The overall volumes stood above Rs 2.50 lakh crore, which remained on the higher side as compared to that on Friday. The market breadth remained in favor of advances as there were 1,364 shares on the gaining side against 981 shares on the losing side while 140 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 326.44 points or 1.66% to settle at 20,030.77, while the CNX Nifty rose by 99.60 points or 1.66% to end at 6,083.15.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 20,083.47 and 19,678.31, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index up by 1.14% and Small cap index was down by 0.79%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were, RIL up by 5.12%, Sun Pharma up by 4.66%, Jindal Steel up by 3.61%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.31% and Hindalco Industries up by 3.17%, while Cipla down by 1.70%, Mahindra & Mahindra down 1.60% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.09% were the only losers on the index. 

The top gainers on the BSE Sectoral space were Consumer Durables up 3.00%, Oil & Gas up 2.76%, Metal up 1.95%, Health Care up 1.56% and Teck up 1.55%, while there were no losers on the sectoral space.

Meanwhile, expressing confidence that sagging economic growth will revive soon, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, in the current fiscal, domestic economy will grow by at least one percent more than the last fiscal growth of around 5 percent. Whereas, the FY15 growth will be a percentage point higher than the current fiscal and will soon touch the potential growth rate of 8 percent, he added.

For achieving the exponential growth, as against normal growth Chidambaram stressed that financial sector regulators, institutions and supervisors will have to gear up for the challenges posed for accelerating growth. By adding further, he said that institutions such as income tax and customs departments will have to enlarge their scale of operations to manage the size.

Referring to the banking sector, Chidambaram said, banks should differentiate the business cycle-affected honest defaulters from others and asked not to abandon the latter group. He also articulated the need for multi-tasking skills mainly by bank’s senior level officers to provide better service to customers.      

The CNX Nifty touched a high and a low of 6,099.90 and 5,975.55 respectively. 

The top gainers on the Nifty were IndusInd Bank up by 6.26%, Reliance Industries up 5.12%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up 4.45%, Jindal Steel up 3.98% and Bharti Airtel up by 3.85%.

On the flip side, the top losers of the index were, Cipla down 1.90%, Maruti Suzuki down 1.78%, Lupin down 1.68%, Mahindra & Mahindra down 1.66% and Bank of Baroda down by 1.63%.

The European markets were trading in green, France’s CAC 40 up by 0.69% and Germany’s DAX up by 0.53 points.

Asian markets ended the session on a mixed note on Monday with Chinese benchmark closing the session in green; however investors remained cautious after new data pointed to an uncertain pace of recovery in the world’s second-largest economy. Reports that China may not launch new stimulus amid concerns of a debt buildup and overcapacity also weighed on the markets, with property stocks slipping. South Korean shares too rose slightly on Monday, edging close to a seven-week high hit last week, helped by the return of foreign investors. However, Japanese Nikkei share average tumbled over three percentage point in an increasingly tense market after last week’s turbulent trade that sent the benchmark reeling to its worst one-day loss in two years.