Markets remain firm on global rebound

22 April 2005

Today morning, global cues were all positive at market opening. Substantial gains in the US markets overnight had prompted most Asian markets to open with gains. Without disappointing, the indices opened with a positive gap over yesterday's closing and gained over a per cent very soon.

The fall came equally fast as the markets lost most of its early gains before noon, but the indices never went into the negative. Markets bounced back early in the afternoon only to retest the earlier lows later. The last hour saw buying coming in and the indices closed with decent gains.

Sensex closed at 6346, up 47 points and the Nifty at 1967, up 19 points. Nifty April futures discount to the spot index widened to 18 points from yesterday's 7 points.

Among Nifty stocks, Wipro, Oriental Bank of Commerce and HCL Technologies were the major percentage gainers while Ranbaxy, Tata Steel and Hero Honda were the major losers.

Yesterday, US markets bounced back very sharply to post one of their biggest single day gains in recent history. Excellent results from leading technology companies like Google, Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson boosted investor confidence in the US and Europe. Dow gained close to 2 per cent while NASDAQ gained over 2 per cent.

Crude futures for June delivery rose marginally to $54.2 per barrel on fresh concerns about shortage of refined petroleum products in the US. On the crude supply side, output from the world's largest oil producing country, Saudi Arabia, touched all time highs of over 9 million barrels per day.

ADR's of Indian companies had a fantastic run yesterday in the US markets. Technology stocks saw a dramatic surge on the NASDAQ following the upbeat market mood. Wipro was the star of the day with gains of close to 8 per cent. Satyam and Infosys were not far behind with gains of close to 5 per cent each. ICICI Bank and Tata Motors were the other major winners with gains of around 3 per cent each. Dr. Reddy's, VSNL and MTNL closed with losses.