Markets close near day's high: Sensex above 17,000

25 April 2008

It was a surprising close for the markets as the ended with some hefty gains. It was trading in green for major part of the day but surged in the final hour of trade. Buying was seen in telecom, banking, auto, metal, oil and technology stocks. The Sensex has crossed its 17000 mark and Nifty went above 5,100 mark.

On the macroeconomic front, inflation came in at 7.33% versus 7.14%; it is more or less inline with market expectations.

Telecom stocks were star performers of the day, on the back of good Q4 earnings from Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom player, the stock up over 6% followed by Reliance Comm and Idea Cellular, which rose 5% and 4% respectively. Bharti Airtel has reported 10.3% growth in its Q4 consolidated net profit of Rs 1,898.9 crore as against Rs 1,722 crore in previous quarter and 12.9% growth in ints revenues of Rs 7,863.7 crore versus Rs 6,964 crore (QoQ).

Hero Honda is up over 3.5% after strong set of numbers declared yesterday.

Sensex closed up 404.90 points or 2.42% at 17125.98, and the Nifty up 111.85 points or 2.24% at 5111.70.

About 1334 shares have advanced, 1538 shares declined, and 206 shares are unchanged.