Mumbai: In see-saw trade, equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty frittered away most of their early gains and inched up to log fresh closing highs for the fourth straight day today amid profit taking in recent gainers like RIL. While buying was seen in realty, IT, consumer durable, metal and pharma, oil&gas shares were dumped by investors, say traders. Small-cap and mid-cap stocks, favourites of retail investors, continued to out-perform bluechips, they added.
The BSE Sensex resumed well and shot up to day's high of 24,587.16 on firm Asian cues and heavy buying by foreign funds. However, the buoyancy was short-lived as it fell back to trade almost flat till afternoon trade. It rebounded marginally to settle at a new closing peak of 24,376.88, clocking a net rise of 13.83 points or 0.06 per cent. In straight four sessions, the index has flared up by 561.76 points, or 2.36 per cent, on hopes that the incoming Narendra Modi-led government will boost the economy.
It previous closing peak was 24,363.05 made on Monday. “In line with expectation, markets were seen trading in a narrow range on Tuesday and closed almost unchanged in the end...we have been seen noticeable interest in midcap and smallcap segment nowadays,” said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities. Select front-line stocks line RIL, ONGC, ICICI Bank, SBI, Coal India, L&T, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, NTPC and Gail India attracted heavy profit-booking.
However, Infosys, HDFC, Sesa Sterlite, M&M, ITC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Wipro, BHEL, Hindalco, Dr Reddy's Lab and Cipla witnessed good demand, said analysts. Similarly, the broader 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE moved in a range of 7,247.70 and 7,353.65, before closing at yet another closing peak of of 7,275.50. It gained 11.95 points or 0.16 per cent over Monday's closing of 7,263.55. “There is optimism after clear win for BJP in the general elections last week. Going ahead, further reform measures and economic recovery will trigger further buying,” said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio. Modi, who steered BJP and the NDA to a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections, was today appointed Prime Minister.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their purchases with an investment of Rs 1,350.04 crore yesterday, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges. Globally, barring South Korea and Taiwan which closed in the negative, other Asian markets finished higher.
However, European stocks were trading lower in the late morning deals, as investors weighed corporate earnings. Back home, 17 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended higher while 13 others closed lower. Major gainers were Sesa Sterlite (7.95 per cent), BHEL (3.60 per cent), M&M (3.57 per cent), Tata Steel (3.49 per cent), Inofoys (3.19 per cent), Bharti Airtel (2.79 per cent), HDFC (2.75 per cent) and Wipro (2.61 per cent). Hindalco (2.37 per cent), Dr Reddy's Lab 1.53 per cent, TCS (1.39 per cent), Cipla (1.13 per cent) and HUL (1.10 per cent) also notched up handsome gains. Sensex losers were led by Coal India which dropped 5.89 per cent, ONGC 3.96 per cent, Reliance Industries 3.73 per cent, Hero Motocorp 3.29 per cent and Gail 2.08 per cent.
NTPC 1.92 per cent, SBI 1.71 per cent, ICICI Bank 1.48 per cent, Larsen & Toubro 1.07 per cent and Tata Motors 1.04 per cent were among prominent laggards. Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices Realty rose by 4.89 per cent, followed by Teck 2.40 per cent, Consumer Durable 2.37 per cent, IT 2.11 per cent, Metal 1.61 per cent, and Healthcare 1.48 per cent.
Market breadth continued to remain firm as 2,143 stocks finished higher, 742 closed lower while 104 ruled steady.
