Markets end with moderate gains; realty, power stocks up

The markets opened with modest gap up today and traded flat for most part of the day. Sensex and Nifty picked up some momentum in late trade on the back of some short covering before F&O settlement this week and ended with over 1% gain on Nifty and nearly 1% gain on Sensex. It was a day consolidation as not much excitement was witnessed despite favourable cues from the global markets coupled with yet another profitable and forward looking Railway budget 2008-09.

It was more of stocks specific day for the markets. Broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices today. Realty, power, metal, apital good and IT stocks traded firm today, however all the key BSE indices traded in green through the day. 

Sensex ended up 155.62 points or 0.88% at 17806.19, and the Nifty was up 69.35 points or 1.33% at 5270.05. About 1749 shares have advanced, 1207 shares declined, and 79 shares are unchanged. BSE midcap ended up 1.27% at 7690.86 and Smallcap was up 1.28% at 9648.49.

BSE auto index ended up 0.54% at 4746.46. Bharat Forge, TVS Motors and Cummins were the major gainers.

BSE bankex was up 0.75% at 10189.48. Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Karnatak Bank were the top gainers in this space.

BSE capital goods index closed up 2.05% at 16124.36. Astra Microwaves, Suzlon Energy and Thermax were the top losers.

BSE FMCG index ended up 0.49% at 2250.79. Godrej Consumer, Glaxo Smith Con and Bata India were major gainers. 

BSE IT index closed up 1.76% at 4062.67. HCL Tech, i-Flex Solution and Infosys were top fliers in the IT space.

BSE metal index ended up 1.64% at 16801.01. In the metal segment, the top gainers were NALCO, Jindal Stainles and Guj NRE Coke.

BSE power index closed up 2.65% at 3706.80. Suzlon Energy, Reliance Energy and BHEL were top gainers.

BSE realty index ended up 2.53% at 10016.49. Indiabulls Realestate, Omaxe and Unitech were the top gainers in realty space.

Asian markets were trading higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.71% .Japan's Nikkei rose 0.50%. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted gained 0.67%, Singapore's Straits Times surged 1.15%. South Korea's Seoul Composite shot up 0.24%.