Markets end in green: Oil, metal stocks up; banks, pharma down

21 May 2008

The markets closed the day with modest gain amid mild volatility after showing strong recovery in second half of session. Oil & gas, metal, capital goods and auto stocks were the movers while banking and pharma stocks draggers. Market breadth remained positive for major part of the day. The Sensex recovered nearly 200 points and the Nifty 70 points from day's low. The Sensex remained above 17000 and Nifty above 5000 mark.

Markets opened on a weak note and traded in red for first half of session due to weakness in Asian and US markets. But strong buying in oil & gas and metal stocks and good European cues have helped the markets in latter part of the day. 

The Sensex has touched an intraday high of 17,293.34 and low of 17,041.63 before ending the day at 17,243.16, up 12.98 points or 0.08%. The Nifty has hit a high/low of 5135.55 and 5048.70, which closed at 5117.65, up 12.7 points or 0.25%.

The BSE Midcap was up 0.59% at 7,148.05 as buying seen in Praj Industries, HMT, Orbit Corp, Firstsource Sol, Chambal Fert, Mercator Lines, Guj NRE Coke and GTL Infra, which gained 6-11%.

The BSE Small cap Index rose 1.51% at 8,788.98. Small cap stocks like Andhra Petro, Jayshree Tea, Supreme Petro, CCL Products, Gabriel India, BAG Films, Mcleod Rus, Navin Fluorine, Tamilnadu Petro, NELCO and Timex Group Ind gained over 10%.

Oil & Gas stocks were the star performers of the day. BSE Oil & Gas Index surged 2.36% or 263.19 points to settle at 11,432.80 as buying seen in RNRL, Essar Oil, Petronet LNG, Reliance, BPCL and HPCL. The Nymex July Crude hit new high of USD 130.28 per barrel.