Markets end marginally higher led by banks, capital goods

17 April 2009

After roaring run up, the benchmark indices wiped out nearly 3% gains in the last one hour of trade and ended the day marginally higher amid choppy trade. Shares of banking, capital goods and private power companies, the heavyweight ONGC, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Unitech helped the indices to close higher. However, the sell-off in metal, auto, pharma stocks as well as stocks like Reliance Industries, NTPC, ITC, DLF, Wipro and ACC capped the gains.

The 30-share BSE Sensex shed 316.38 points or lost 2.8% from an intraday high of 11,339.47, before closing the day at 11,023.09, up just 0.69% or 75.69 points. The 50-share NSE Nifty shut shop at 3384.40, up 0.44% or 14.9 points; it lost 105.45 points or 3.02% from the day's highest point of 3489.85.

Broader indices - BSE Midcap Index was up 33.87 points or 0.98%, to settle at 3,472.60 and Smallcap Index closed at 3,951.56, up 0.57% or 22.57 points.

Volumes were on the lower side as compared to last two days and slipped below Rs 1 lakh crore mark. Total traded turnover stood at Rs 98,377.25 crore. This includes Rs 17,380.85 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 75,438.49 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 5,557.91 crore from BSE cash segment.

Sectoral indices
BSE Realty Index ended 65.75 points or 3.13% higher at 2,166.49 on the back of gain in Unitech, which shot up 21.34%, as the company board approved raising of Rs 5,000 crore via QIP issue. Mahindra Life, Puravankara Projects, Parsvnath, Peninsula Land, HDIL and Omaxe gained 3-10.7%. However, Indiabulls Real, Akruti City, Orbit Corporation and DLF lost 1.8-5%.

Banking stocks like Axis Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank gained 3.5-7%; PNB was up 1.43% and HDFC Bank was up 0.36%. BSE Bankex went up 2.93% or 157.16 points, to settle at 5,526.33. Aggressive buying was seen in the Bank Nifty for the second consecutive day, as there was a buzz of a leading FII accumulating PSU Bank stocks.