Markets end strong led by oil exploration, IT, banks, realty

01 April 2009

The benchmark indices witnessed good buying interest in the last one hour of trade, after trading volatile for major part of the day and ended the session on a strong note. The markets continued the rally for the second straight day. The Nifty closed above the 3050 mark while the Sensex settled over the 9900 level; both the indices recovered some of Monday's losses in the last two days. Broader indices played the key role today and remained in the limelight.

Buying in oil & gas exploration, technology, banking, realty and private power companies' shares aided the markets to surge higher. However, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Power Grid, NTPC, Sun Pharma, HUL, ITC, Hero Honda, Sterlite, BPCL and Grasim remained under pressure.

The 30-share BSE Sensex touched an intraday high of 9,921.96, before closing the day at 9,901.99, up 1.99% or 193.49 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty went up 1.3% or 39.40 points, to settle at 3,060.35, after hitting a high of 3069.30.

Among the frontliners, Ranbaxy Labs, HDFC, Reliance Infrastructure, DLF, ICICI Bank, Suzlon Energy, Reliance Capital and Unitech were the top gainers, jumped 5-10%.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index was up 55.57 points or 1.88%, to close at 3,011.80 and the Small Cap Index shut shop at 3,339.87, up 2.87% or 93.24 points over previous close.

The market breadth closed in favour of advances due to positive broader indices. About 2049 shares advanced while 895 shares declined. Nearly 139 shares remained unchanged.