Nifty calms Dalal Street prior to expiry next week
20 May 2011
The benchmark index Nifty shut shop for the week with striking gains, soothing investors' nerves. A blend of capital goods, auto, power, realty, pharma and banking stocks was the recipe for bulls. The oil and gas sector was the flavor of the day, but for all the wrong reasons.
The Indian market opened this week with the aftershocks of the petrol price hike and SBI results. Positive surprises from L&T, Ashok Leyland and ITC at the later half ended the week on a cheerful note.
The BSE Sensex surged nearly 200 points within minutes of the opening bell today. The index extended its rally to 260 points overlooking subsidy burden news on upstream companies. Profit booking in last hour of trade trimmed gains to 184 points. The broader markets underperformed largecaps.
The Sensex closed at 18326.09 up 184.69 points or 1.02% and the Nifty ended at 5484.25 up 56.15 points or 1.03%. About 1569 shares advanced, 1307 shares declined, and 765 shares remain unchanged.
Subsidy burden: ONGC will chip in Rs 24,892.4 crore in FY2010-11. Subsidy payout on upstream companies will be at 38.7% Vs 33% earlier. Oil India will pay Rs 3,293 crore fuel subsidy in FY11. GAIL will pay Rs 2,111 crore as fuel subsidy.