Markets end higher amidst extreme volatility; RIL rallies

Markets ended with good gains amidst extreme volatility through the day on F&O expiry day for the month of June 2008. Buying interest has seen in late trade; the Nifty got back above 4300 mark. Biggest contributors were RIL, Infosys, HDFC, L&T, Wipro, SBI and ONGC. IT, Oil & Gas, metal stocks gained while realty lost. June series in F&O were very bad for the markets. Markets did not react to weak European cues.

Reliance Industries was again top star amongst frontliners; stock went up nearly 4.87% at Rs 2,239.25 after the news that oil and natural gas production from RIL's KG D6 basin is expected to commence in Q3CY08, says Niko Resources, which holds 10% stake in RIL's KG D6 basin. Resources also says Gas operations from D6 are expected to increase to 2.8 Bcf/d and R1 exploration well in D6 added 2.2 Tcf to best case contingent reserve. D6 2P natural gas reserves went up by 15% to 13.0 Tcf.

The Sensex swung nearly 250 points and the Nifty 95 points in today's session. The Sensex closed at 14,421.82, up 201.75 points or 1.42% after hitting an intraday high of 14,449.81 and low of 14,196.68. The Nifty scaled back to 4300 mark and finished at 4315.85, up 1.49% or 63.2 points. It has touched a high and low of 4324.75 and 4230.00, respectively.

Nifty went down 11% for the June Series. Aggressive short rollover has seen in Nifty July series and discounts widened to 66 points. Fertilizers stock seen fresh long build-ups after new policy announcement. Market Wide rollover stood at 74.4 and Nifty rollover at 67%.

Fertiliser stocks also shot up higher after the government announced new fertiliser policy. Fertiliser Minister said that the government has finalised new Potash, Phosphate Price Policy. New Fertiliser Policy will be for long term now versus yearly. Chambal Fert, Coromandel Fert, Deepak Fert, GNFC, GSFC, Nagarjuna Fert and National Fert surged around 5-12%.

India's largest bank, SBI has hiked Benchmark PLR by 50 bps to 12.75%, which will be effective from June 27. The stock went up 1.09% at Rs 1,216.25.

Turnover traded by the markets stood at Rs 1,00,071.8 crore. This includes Rs 15,779.81 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 79,103.71 crore from NSE F&O segment and the balance Rs 5,188.28 crore from BSE Cash segment.

On the global front, Asian markets ended flat with negative bias. Hang Seng was down -0.8%, Shanghai -0.11%, Nikkei -0.05%, Straits Times -0.25%, Kospi -0.01% and Taiwan Weighted -0.55%. However Jakarta Composite went up 0.41%. European markets were trading sharply lower on the back of selling in banking stocks, at the time of writing market report. FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX went down around 1% each.