Sensex closes above 10000 on expiry day; infra, banks surge

26 March 2009

It was a stunning performance from the benchmark indices on the settlement day of March series. The Sensex touched the 10,000 mark, after 50 sessions and managed to close above the same level. The Nifty also tested the 3100 mark during the day but retreated from that level during the last 10 minutes of the trade. Domestic as well as Foreign institutional investors were buyers in today's trade. Local mutual funds were also active in midcaps on NAV propping.

Buying in infrastructure, metal, banking, technology, auto, FMCG and oil & gas sectors helped the markets to stay in positive throughout the day. The Broader indices also followed the same trend but underperformed the benchmark indices. All sectoral indices ended higher barring Realty Index.

The Sensex has touched an intraday high of 10,061.36, before closing the day at 10,003.10, up 335.20 points or 3.47%. The 50-share NSE Nifty shut shop at 3082.25, up 3.28% or 97.90 points, after hitting a high of 3103.35. The last time both the indices had touched respective marks on Januray 7, 2009.

Among the frontliners, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, TCS, L&T, Wipro, Sterlite, Maruti and Tata Power gained 5-6%. SBI, ITC, Infosys, Reliance Industries, NTPC, HDFC, HUL, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank went up 2-4%.

It was the highest turnover this week due to F&O expiry and markets reported a turnover of more than Rs 90,000 crore for the third consecutive day. Total traded turnover stood at Rs 97,107.51 crore. This includes Rs 15,527.42 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 76,957.01 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4,623.08 crore from BSE cash segment.

Marketwide rollover stood at 70% versus 63% on last day of February series and Nifty futures rollover at 66%. The April series put-call ratio was at 1.6. Nifty April 3000 Put added about 15 lakh shares in open interest, OI.