Markets close higher ahead of F&O expiry; midcaps outperform

Buying in infrastructure (capital goods + power), telecom, cement, realty, technology, select pharma stocks and in ONGC helped the benchmark indices to shut the session on a positive note. But the volatility remained throughout the day ahead of F&O expiry on Thursday, which kept the Nifty floating around 4250 in the first half of the trade and around the 4300 level post 2 pm.

However, the sell-off in Reliance Industries, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Sterlite, Nalco and PNB capped the gains.

Sanjay Sinha, CEO of DBS Chola Mandalam AMC said we would not be done with the volatility by the time we are through with the June series because we have another event coming in about seven days of trading session which is the Budget. He said, "It's going to be nightmare for the traders at least in the run-up to the Budget. I don't think it will be an easy path till then," he added

The 30-share Sensex was up 98.72 points or 0.69%, to settle at 14,422.73, after seeing an intraday high of 14,479.82 and low of 14,207.02. The 50-share NSE Nifty touched a day's high/low of 4307 and 4218.25, before closing at 4292.95, up 1.08% or 45.95 points.

The marketwide, Nifty and stocks futures rollovers were seen at around 43%, 36% and 43%, respectively. The Nifty July futures added over 54 lakh shares in open interest (OI) with a turnover of Rs 4,200 crore, which ended with 17 points premium.

The broader indices outperformed the benchmark indices helped by sugar space to some extent. The BSE Midcap Index was up 117.50 points or 2.38%, to 5,059.84 and the Smallcap Index closed at 5,719.03, up 2.26% or 126.63 points.

It was a sweet day for the sugar space; Triveni Engineering shot up 10.31%. Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini, Bannariamman, Dhampur Sugar, Dharani Sugars, Dwarikesh Sugar, EID Parry, Ponni Sugars (E), Rajshree Sugars, Sakthi Sugars, Shree Renuka, Simbhaoli Sugar, Upper Ganges Sugar and Uttam Sugar were up 5-7.5%. Balrampur Chini July futures added over 47 lakh shares in OI.

Power, capital goods, pharma and realty stocks witnessed buying interest; respective indices went up 2-2.8%. In the power space, Torrent Power surged 16.05%. Suzlon Energy gained 9.07% and its July futures added over 1 crore shares in OI.

GVK Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power and NTPC were up 1.4-5.5%. Capital Goods stocks like Punj Lloyd, ABB, Siemens, BHEL and L&T gained 1.5-6%.

In the pharma space, Biocon, Dishman Pharma, Wockhardt, Glenmark, Sun Pharma, Apollo Hospital and Cipla moved up 2.2-9%.

Among the realty stocks, Indiabulls Real, Akruti City, Puravankara Projects, Parsvnath, Omaxe, HDIL, DLF and Unitech were up 1-6.7%. Dharavi Rehabilitation Project would close financial bids on July 20. Unitech, Indiabulls Real, Emaar-MGF, DLF-Akruti were among the top bidders.

In the telecom pack, Idea Cellular, Tata Communication, Reliance Communication, MTNL and Bharti Airtel gained 1.3-3.7%.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) will launch GSM services in Maharashtra and Goa in August. The stock surged 10% and its July futures added nearly 30 shares in OI.

In the technology space, TCS shot up 4.33%. Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and HCL Tech were up 0.5-1%.

Auto stocks like Tata Motors, Apollo Tyres, Ashok Leyland and M&M went up 2.8-4%. Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda gained 0.6-0.7%.

There was a mixed trend in oil & gas, metal and banking sectors. In the oil & gas space, ONGC was up 2.39% and BPCL gained 1.40% However, Reliance Petroleum, Reliance Industries, HPCL and IOC fell 0.4-0.8%.

In the metal pack, JSL surged 17.26%. JSW Steel, Hindalco, Jindal Saw and Tata Steel were up 1.5-4%. SAIL was up 0.34% while NALCO and Sterlite fell 1-2%.

Banking stocks like Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra were up 1.5-3.8%. SBI was up 0.48% while HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank lost 1-2%. PNB fell 0.33%.

In the midcap space, Educomp Solutions and Kirloskar Brothers were up 10-11%. In the smallcap segment, Core Projects, Dewan Housing, Sasken Communication, Transport Corporation and Balmer Invest moved up 10-12.5%.

Total traded turnover stood at Rs 1,06,553.99 crore as against Rs 1,09,543.28 crore on Tuesday. This included Rs 17,909.77 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 82,940.03 crore from the NSE F&O and the balance Rs 5,704.19 crore from the BSE cash segment.

The market breadth was in favour of advances; about 1877 shares advanced while 882 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 391 shares remained unchanged.

Global cues
At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets like the FTSE was up 9 points, to 4,238. The CAC rose 25 points, to 3,141 and the DAX went up 42 points, to 4,749.

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones futures rose 31 points, to 8,288 and the Nasdaq futures gained 4 points at 1,428. 

Asian markets ended higher. Jakarta Composite shot up 4.25% and Taiwan Weighted was up 3%. Hang Seng and Straits Times were up 2-2.4%. Shanghai Composite rose 1%. Nikkei and Seoul Composite gained 0.2-0.4%.