Even after five sessions of continuous gains till last Friday, there was no let up in market momentum today. When market heavyweights like Reliance Industries and ONGC lead the rally, profit booking in some other frontline stocks matter little. Strong rally across all Asian markets helped sustain the momentum.

The Sensex crossed 12500 in opening trades and saw a new lifetime high of 12511. The Nifty also past the 3700 mark in early trades to set a new all-time high of 3709.

Though the indices drifted down till noon, a fresh rally in Reliance lifted them again and the indices went close to their early highs by mid-afternoon. Surviving some profit booking by intra-day traders, indices closed the day on a firm note.

Sensex closed with gains of 103 points at 12463 and the Nifty added 29 points to close at 3693. Nifty May futures closed at a discount of 5 points to the spot index.

Reliance Industries is getting more and more energized as the listing of Reliance Petroleum nears. Traders are betting on a spectacular listing by RPL, considering the unprecedented interest generated by the IPO. Rumours of a possible acquisition in Pakistan by Reliance pushed the stock further.

After opening with strong gains and touching a new life high, the stock consolidated before starting a fresh rally in the afternoon. The stock finally closed with gains of over 5 per cent.

ONGC also opened strong, continuing the rally from Friday. The stock gave up part of the gains later in the day and closed a per cent higher.

HDFC, which has been subdued for sometime, came back strongly today. The stock ended more than 4 per cent higher on expectations of another hike in home loan rates. Its main competitor ICICI Bank had raised home loan rates over the weekend.

Cement stocks gained ground after last week's losses, led by ACC, which added 2 per cent. Gujarat Ambuja recovered from Friday's fall and closed over 1.5 per cent higher.

Zee Tele perked up in afternoon trades and closed more than 3 per cent higher.

Tata Chemicals, Hero Honda, Glaxo, Reliance Energy and HCL Technologies were among the other gainers.

Pharma stocks were among the weakest, following previous week's spectacular gains. Sun Pharma was the biggest loser among index stocks, closing more than 1.5 per cent lower. Cipla and Ranbaxy were the other losers, closing more than a per cent each lower.

Stocks of oil marketing companies saw some profit booking after last week's gains. HPCL lost nearly 1.5 per cent while Indian Oil closed more than 0.5 per cent lower. BPCL also ended with losses.

Major auto stocks closed lower, led by M&M, which lost nearly 1.5 per cent. Tata Motors gave up 0.5 per cent while Maruti ended with marginal losses.

HLL, ICICI Bank, L&T and Hindalco were among the other losers.

Global markets / crude oil
Asian markets had a spectacular day on the back of strong gains in the US indices on Friday. Shanghai was the biggest gainer among major indices, closing almost 4 per cent higher. Thailand added almost 2 per cent while Hong Kong and Indonesia ended higher by around 1.7 per cent each. Japan, Singapore and South Korea closed nearly a per cent each higher.

After the modest recovery on Friday, crude oil has slipped below $70-per barrel mark once again in early European trades today. Near month NYMEX futures are trading with losses of over a per cent below $69.5 currently.

Large-cap news flow

• Gail India would set up LPG plants in Uzbekistan along with a local state owned natural gas company. Each plant would involve an investment of up to $60 million. The amount of investment planned by Gail has not been disclosed.
  
• Satyam Computers has entered into an agreement with a Danish IT company to offer SAP implementation and support.
  

Mid-Cap Action
Though the mid-cap index closed with modest gains, there was considerable activity in individual stocks. While some new stocks came to the forefront, high-fliers from the previous week faced selling pressure. The CNX Mid-Cap index gained 31 points, or 0.57 per cent, to end the day at 5281 - a new lifetime high.

There was frenzied buying in select mid-cap stocks and many of them ended in the 20 per cent upper circuit. Surana Telecom, Paradyne Infotech, GTN Textiles, Crew BOS, Shreyas Shipping, BBTC, Soma Textiles, Maral Overseas and Goetze India all closed with 20 per cent gains on the NSE.

Select stocks from the power sector saw a sharp surge in late afternoon trades. PTC ended nearly 20 per cent higher while Neyveli Lignite gained almost 15 per cent.

BSEL Infrastructure, Mercator Lines, Pratibha Industries and Adani Exports were among the other significant mid-cap gainers.

GMR Industries, Plethico Pharma, Shyam Telecom, Finolex, Supreme Petro and FCS Software were among the significant mid-cap losers on the NSE.

Mid-cap news flow

• NIIT Technologies has acquired a majority stake in a UK-based BPO company providing insurance solutions, for an undisclosed amount. The target company has revenues of $25 million with 120 employees. NIIT has the option to acquire the remaining stake by next year.
• The 70:30 JV between Force Motors and MAN of Germany has started commercial production at its new heavy truck assembly unit. The venture, set up with an investment of €150 million, is targeting annual production of 24,000 units, to be marketed initially in India and later in other parts of Asia and Africa. The two partners are considering another venture to manufacture buses.
• Shreyas Shipping has received a contract from Reliance Industries for shipping 60,000 tonnes of polymer per annum to Pakistan.
• Glenmark Pharma has signed an agreement with US based Aspen Pharma to jointly manufacture and market 3 new generic products in the US markets. The company said the combined market size of these products is around $44 million.
• Khaitan Electricals would issue 12 lakh shares to promoters and 30 lakh shares to strategic investors on a preferential basis at Rs139.3 per share.
• Gangotri Textiles has formed a joint venture with a Swiss company to retail branded garments in Europe and Asia.
• Dwarikesh Sugar would start the construction of its new sugar mill this month. The mill would have a crushing capacity of 7,500 tonnes per day with a co-generation plant of 36 MW. The plant would start commercial production by next year.
• The board meeting of Everest Kanto scheduled for next week would consider setting up a manufacturing unit in China.
• Rasandik Engineering is considering various fund raising options from overseas markets.
• Ceat has clarified that it has no immediate plans to dispose its land holdings, as reported in the media.
• Jaiprakash Hydro has re-started its 300 MW hydro-electric station in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
• Snowcem India would stop marketing cement paint under the brand name Snowcem and would drop the word from the company's name following the settlement of a copyright dispute. The company would pay compensation to the copyright holders for using the trademark during the disputed period. The company has entered into a contract manufacturing agreement with the trademark holders and has started production.
• Balmer Lawrie Van Leer has completed the acquisition of plastic container unit from Gillanders Arbuthnot.
• The board of Royal Manor Hotels would consider a preferential issue of 45-lakh convertible warrants at a price of Rs24 per share to outside investors.
• Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys would issue 32-lakh convertible warrants at a price of Rs95 per share to persons connected to existing promoters. The company is also considering a new sugar mill in Andhra Pradesh. A subsidiary company of Nava Bharat has been allotted 250 acres of land by the AP government to develop an IT SEZ.
• Asian Electronics would raise $55 million from an overseas issue of equity or related instruments. FII investment limit would be raised to 49 per cent.
  

*Disclaimer: The author may have positions in some of the stocks specifically mentioned above at the time of writing this article. This analysis / report is only for the purpose of information and is not an investment advice. Readers are advised to consult a certified financial advisor before taking any investment decisions. While efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided in the content the author or publisher shall not be held responsible for any loss caused to any person whatsoever.

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