Sensex ends 91 points higher on firm global cues; metals rally
22 Dec 2009
The Sensex recovered around two-third of its Monday's losses on firm global cues and closed the session 91 points higher. Metal, banking, realty, power and telecom were the leading sectors in trade today along with heavyweight Reliance Industries. The Nifty was unable to cross the 5,000 mark because of selling in cement stocks, and ONGC, TCS, HDFC Bank, Ranbaxy and HUL limited the gains.
Ray Barros, CEO, Ray Barros Trading Group believes that the market will make an attempt to 20,500. But he was pessimistic on markets post Christmas. "In the short-term, the Sensex is going to come off after Christmas. The same for the Nifty; I am looking for the Nifty to come back off after Christmas. So that's what I would be looking for in terms of the first quarter. Markets will hold up until December 31 and then the markets will pullback."
"The Nifty's minimum target on the pullback will be about 4,600 and on the Sensex minimum pullback would be 15,600", he said.
Daryl Guppy, Founder and Director of Guppytraders.com said, "If the Nifty breaks above 5,150 then initial upside target is 5,650. If the Sensex breaks above 17,500 then the initial upside target is 19,500."
Metal stocks were the leaders in the last couple of hours; the BSE Metal Index gained 2.9%. SAIL was the top gainers, up 6.47%. Sesa Goa, Tata Steel and Hindalco were up 3.65-4.8%. JSW Steel, Jindal Steel and NALCO gained 1.6-2.3%.
Sterlite Industries rose 0.55%.
Banking also witnessed buying interest, after seeing selling in last few days on rate hike concerns. ICICI Bank was up 1.95% and Axis Bank up 1.34%. PNB and SBI gained 0.9% each. Bank of Baroda went up 0.61% while HDFC Bank slipped just 0.3%.