Sensex adds 31 points; Tata Steel rallies 4.45 per cent

Frontline Indian indexes opened with good gains, on the back of firm Asian trend, but could not hold on to the gains. They shed all their gains by mid-morning before recovering and holding steady till late afternoon. They once again shed most of their gains in the last hour.

Sensex closed with gains of 31 points at 13928 and the Nifty gained just 1 point to end at 4085. Nifty April futures closed at a discount of 15 points to the spot index.

Tata Steel resumed its surge and was the best performing Nifty stock with gains of 4.45 per cent. SAIL closed 1.45 per cent higher.

Tata Power surged 4.09 per cent after the company announced that it can start work on a 4,000 MW power project. Reliance Energy closed 2.52 per cent higher.

ONGC extended its gains and added 1.57 per cent.

Zee Entertainment also continued it's up trend and added 2.34 per cent.

Among telecom stocks, VSNL added 2.68 per cent and Reliance Communications closed 1.94 per cent higher.

Glaxo gained 1.65 per cent and ABB closed with gains of 1.45 per cent.

Sun Pharma saw a sharp fall of close to 8 per cent in intra-day trading before recovering and closing 4.67 per cent lower.

Suzlon Energy slipped further and lost 3.8 per cent.

FMCG stocks came under pressure and ITC closed 2.56 per cent while HLL closed 1.49 per cent lower.

HCL Tech corrected after last week's sharp rally and closed 3.22 per cent lower.

Among auto stocks, M&M lost 1.67 per cent and Maruti gave up 1.5 per cent. Bajaj Auto also closed 1.5 per cent lower.

Among other losers, MTNL gave up 1.52 per cent and PNB lost 1.46 per cent.

Global markets / crude oil
Most Asian markets remained firm today and extended their gains from the previous week. Shanghai added another 3.5 per cent today and has now more than recovered from last Thursday's sharp fall. The Shanghai index had recovered 3.9 per cent on Friday. Indonesia gained more than 0.9 per cent while Singapore closed 0.85 per cent higher. South Korea added 0.75 per cent and Malaysia ended 0.45 per cent higher. Japan closed with very marginal gains.

Thailand lost 0.2 per cent and Hong Kong ended 0.05 per cent lower.

European markets have corrected today after previous week's gains. Major European indexes are trading with losses of between 0.05 per cent and 0.35 per cent each in afternoon trading.

Crude oil prices are holding above $44 per barrel today. Near month NYMEX futures has gained nearly 0.5 per cent in European trading today.

Large-cap news flow

Mid-Cap Action
Mid-caps and small caps gained strength in early afternoon trading, but shed all their gains towards closing. The CNX Mid-cap index gained 4 points, or 0.08 per cent, to end at 5165. The BSE mid-cap index gained 0.06 per cent and the BSE small cap index closed 0.05 per cent lower.

Media Video ended at 20 per cent upper circuit. Balpharma, First Source, Lyka labs, Cyber Media, Magma Leasing and Balkrishna Industries were all locked in 10 per cent upper circuits.

Uniply, Gabriel India and Broadcast Initiatives were the other major gainers among mid and small-caps.

Titan Industries slipped 5.73 per cent as the company's quarterly numbers were below expectations.

Himadri Chemicals, Weizman Industries, Goldstone Technologies, NRB Bearing, SB&T International, Advanta India, Samtel, Godavari Fertilizers and Rajvir Industries were the major losers among mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

Mid-cap news flow

Thomas White Global Research, part of the Thomas White International Group, publishes capital market research for global institutions and investment banks.

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