Sensex ends 17.5 per cent up in Apr series; all sectoral indices up

29 April 2009

The benchmark indices rallied smartly on the back of positive global cues and ended the session as well as April series on a strong note. This uptrend was supported by technology, oil & gas, metal, rate sensitives and infrastructure stocks followed by midcaps and smallcaps. The Sensex surpassed the 11,400 level while the Nifty closed above the 3450 level; both the indices recovered all of Tuesday's losses.

The 30-share BSE Sensex shut shop at 11,403.25, with a gain of 401.50 points or 3.65% over previous close, and ended this truncated with a gain of 0.65%. The 50-share NSE Nifty surged 3.32% or 111.60 points, to settle at 3,473.95 and lost 0.2% this week.

Leading heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, Bharti, Infosys, ICICI Bank, NTPC, BHEL, SBI, TCS, Wipro, HUL and HDFC gained 2.5-9%.

The Sensex ended the April series with 17.5% gain while the Nifty surged 15% from the close of March series. But the experts are cautious for the May series.
 
R Venkat Subramanium, Head-Alternate Investments Group, Kotak Securities, said he would be extremely cautious while stepping into the May series.

Ajay Loganadan, Head-Investment Advisory Group Private Banking, HSBC Private Banking also said, "We have got enough uncertainty in May, one is election results; secondly on May 4 we get the stress test result from the global banks. Today's news was that 6 out of 19 will need additional capital. So there is some amount of uncertainty given the month ahead."

On the sectoral front, the BSE IT Index was up 5% and the Bankex shot up 4.5%. The Oil & Gas Index went up 3.5%. Power, Auto, Metal, Realty and Capital Goods indices gained 2-3%.