Post Session: Quick Review

Buying which picked up pace in the second half of the session led to third consecutive session of gains for major equity indices at D-street. After dilly-dallying in the first half of the session, markets gathered momentum in the latter part, tracing the positive opening of European markets. Although gains of Asian pacific shares also contributed to the rally, investors also drew support from Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s statement that India's growth story to stay. He said that the country has a huge potential and although it would continue to grow at 5-6% in the coming decades, good governance can raise this trajectory to 6-8%. By the end of the session, benchmark 30 share index, Sensex, on BSE, added over hundred of points to its kitty, to end above the crucial 20150 level, while 50 share index, Nifty, too adding over quarter percent, concluded  past the crucial 6100 level.  Meanwhile, broader indices too gaining sufficient traction ended up with gains of over half a percent.

On the global front, Japanese stocks strengthened and Asian shares edged higher on Tuesday, although investors were still awaiting direction from US markets when they resume trade after holidays, following last week’s turbulence. Meanwhile, European shares rebounding after a two-days drop were trading in green with investors in Britain catching up with the previous day's gains after returning from a long weekend, and with comments by a top European Central Bank official of improving sentiment.

Closer home, the wild swings of benchmarks could be attributed to the May derivatives contract expiry this Thursday as Sensex after dipping sub 20k level, recovered considerable ground to end past 20100 level, while Nifty after sinking  to 6050 level, gained ground to conclude past 6100 level. Immense support was rendered by stocks from Oil & Gas, Auto and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) counter, mainly fuelled the rally at D-Street. Led by the gains of BHEL and GAIL, PSU counter stocks witnessed good demand.  However, Health Care counter remained the sole dark spot in otherwise bright trade. Meanwhile, Banking and Auto counters which languished at bottom for the most part of the day staged significant recovery by the end of the trade. The market breadth on the BSE ended positive; advances and declining stocks were in a ratio of 1204: 1149, while 164 scrips remained unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex gained 136.77 points or 0.68% to settle at 20167.54.The index touched a high and a low of 20209.82 and 19963.23 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 19 stocks gained, while 10 ended in red and 1 stock remains unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices ended higher by 0.67% and 0.49% respectively. (Provisional)

On the BSE Sectoral front, Oil & Gas up by 1.72%, Auto up by 1.33%, PSU up by 1.27%, Consumer Durables up by 1.11% and Power up by 0.99% were the top gainers, while Health Care down by 0.60% and Bankex down by 0.04%, were the only losers in the space. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 5.09%, BHEL up by 3.30%, Coal India up by 3.01%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.22% and ONGC up by 1.94%, while, Sun Pharma down by 1.90%, SBI down by 1.45%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.40%, Cipla down by 1.18% and  HDFC down by 0.83% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that Indian economy will continue to grow at 5-6 per cent regardless of Government’s efforts, but with effective governance, economic growth can rise to over 8 per cent. The country should focus on ensuring the conditions for economic growth. He said that there is a need of effective and efficient governance and steps like efficient use of money, time and design of projects can propel the growth rate to 8 - 9 per cent in the coming years.

By adding further, he said that huge landmass with untapped resources, large young population with high aspirations that demand goods and services and entrepreneur class are reflecting India’s growth potential. Indians have a set of values and their nature to work hard would facilitate this growth, he added.

The finance minister said that the developments in global economies should not affect Indian (stock) markets and instead the focus should be on the performance of domestic companies. Meanwhile, India's GDP growth is estimated to slow down to a decade low of around 5 per cent in 2012-13 owing to the prevailing global economic slowdown. Before financial meltdown in 2008, it was growing at over 8 per cent.

India VIX, a gauge for markets short term expectation of marginally gained 0.52% at 17.12 from its previous close of 17.03 on Monday. (Provisional)

The CNX Nifty gained 28.60 points or 0.47 % to settle at 6,111.75. The index touched high and low of 6,127.65 and 6,055.40 respectively. 27 stocks advanced against 23 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 6.99%, JP Associate up by 4.20%, BHEL up by 3.58%, Coal India up by 2.93% and M&M was up by 2.50%. On the other hand, Ranbaxy down by 2.67%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.96%, Kotak Bank down by 1.79%, SBI down by 1.56% and Sesa Goa down by 1.53% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Most of the European markets were trading in green with, Germany’s DAX up by 1.09%, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 1.63% and France’s CAC 40 up by 1.49%.