Nifty closes above 5400, up 1%; Sterlite, NTPC top gainers

Huge gush of liquidity propelled the rally in BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty on Tuesday, a day after a big weekend. The 50-share NSE Nifty surpassed the 5400 level quite nicely in late trade, for the first time since March 16, 2012, which rose 54.70 points or 1.02% to close at 5421.

Meanwhile, the 30-share BSE benchmark was moving towards the 18,000 level, which surged 194.18 points or 1.10% to 17,885.26 due to buying interest in technology, banks, auto and infrastructure stocks.

Vibhav Kapoor of IL&FS feels gushing liquidity will keep sentiment high, helping the Nifty take out key resistance levels. ''If this positive sentiment continues for some more time, there is a good possibility that the market might break upwards and target 5,500 and maybe even 5,600,'' he said.

However, Kapoor believes Nifty at 5,600 is unsustainable because of lagging fundamentals. Macro economic cues in the country still do not bring cheer to the market. There is yet to be any significant action from the government on reforms and fiscal consolidation, and interest rates continue to remain high, hurting investment demand in the country. In such a scenario, Kapoor says profit booking will kick in once the Nifty hits 5,600.

Foreign institutional investors have consistently bought more than Rs 7,500 crore worth of equity shares since June 27 and during the same period, the market rallied 7.5%, just on hopes of some policy action, reform action or diesel price hike.

Stable European markets too aided the rally on hopes of some policy action by European Central Bank to ease current credit crisis.

Bruno Verstrate, chief executive officer of Lakefield Partners says, the European markets are quite relaxed because there is not much news flowing into the markets at this stage. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were up 0.4%-0.8%.

Back home, Sterlite Industries rallied 4.5% and Sesa Goa gained 3.5% on rally in global mining stocks. Jindal Steel was up 0.66%, but Hindalco Industries lost 1.5% on reports that the company told to shut Captive Power plant in Odisha.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were up around 1% while their rival HDFC Bank rose 0.26%. Housing finance company HDFC surged 3%.

Infosys, India's second largest software services exporter went up 2.4% as the US court judge dismissed J Palmer's charges against Infosys and ruled in favour of the company. Its rival TCS jumped 1.6%.

Fast moving consumer goods' major Hindustan Unilever rallied 2.3%. Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and state-owned power equipment maker BHEL were up 1% each.

Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors and utility vehicle manufacturer M&M gained more than 2%.

State-run ONGC and GAIL moved up 1.7% and 2.6%, respectively. Power producers NTPC and Tata Power went up 2.5%-3%.

Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel lost over 1% and cigarette major ITC was down 0.3%.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange, advancers outnumbered decliners by 1474 to 1328. The BSE Midcap Index was up 0.24% and Smallcap up 0.52%.

In the second line shares, Reliance Capital and Deccan Chronicle Holdings rallied 5% each. Bilcare shot up 20% amid huge volumes after the company sold its global clinical supplies business in US and UK for USD 61 million to United Drug.

Elder Pharma and Orchid Chemicals shot up 5-6%. Retail stocks like Pantaloon Retail, Koutons, S Kumars and Provogue gained 3-5%.

Apollo Tyre, JK Tyre and Ceat touched 52-week highs today, which surged 4-9%. However, Manappuram Finace, Jain Irrigation and Ashok Leyland were down 2-3%.

Finally the 50-share NSE Nifty has touched the 5400 level for the first time since March 16, with the support from banks, technology, power, capital goods and auto stocks. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries too rebounded.

The BSE benchmark gained 177 points at 17,868 while the NSE benchmark climbed 50 points to 5,416. The Indian rupee too appreciated by 25 paise to 55.49 against the US dollar, which may be an indication that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought some more shares.

FIIs have consistently been buying more than Rs 7,500 crore worth of equity shares since July 27. During the same period, the benchmarks rallied more than 6%.

Infosys, country's second largest software services exporter Infosys rallied 2.4% while its rival TCS gained over 1%.

Among infrastructure stocks, Larsen & Toubro and BHEL were up over 1% while NTPC and Tata Power surged 3.4% and 2.6%, respectively.

Private steel producer Sterlite Industries extended gains to 3.5% as The Economic Times reported that residual stake sale (by the government) in Hindustan Zinc and BALCO (wherein Sterlite owns majority stake) put on fast track.

Country's largest lender State Bank of India and ICICI Bank moved up around 1% while their rival HDFC Bank trimmed losses significantly.

Housing finance company HDFC, top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors, FMCG major Hindustan Unilever, utility vehicle manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra and state-owned GAIL rallied 2%-2.8%.

Oil & gas producer ONGC was up 1.4%, but Hindalco and Bharti tanked over 1.5%. ITC, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's Labs and Hero Motocorp were down 0.4%-0.8%.

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty gained 0.5% each in afternoon trade as the European markets extended gains. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were up 0.5-0.8% amid low volumes as German press reports indicated that (over the weekend) European Central Bank (ECB) will announce acceptable yield spreads and buy bonds till objective achieved, but the ECB denied the same.

The BSE benchmark advanced 100 points to 17,791.13 and the NSE benchmark moved up 26 points to 5,392.35.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank dropped nearly 1% whereas its rivals State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were up 0.35% and 0.6%, respectively.

Among fast moving consumer goods stocks, ITC went down 0.7% while Hindustan Unilever climbed over 1%.

Aluminium major Hindalco Industries tumbled nearly 3% and steel producer Tata Steel declined 0.6%, but Sterlite Industries extended gains to 1.5%.

Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel was down 0.6% and country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero Motocorp lost over 1%.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro recouped its losses after its subsidiary L&T Construction division has received orders over Rs 2,044 crore Since July 1.

Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors, housing finance company HDFC, software services exporter Infosys and state-owned utility NTPC climbed 2-2.5%.

Shares of TCS, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, GAIL, BHEL and Cipla were up around 1%.

Indian equity benchmarks remained in a positive terrain led by technology and auto heavyweights. But the fall in HDFC Bank, ITC, L&T, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank has capped the upside. On the global front, European markets opened higher with 0.35% gains on hopes of some action will be taken by European Central Bank to ease credit crisis.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 61 points at 17,751.87 while the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 15.25 points to 5,381.55.

Housing finance company HDFC, drug producer Cipla and country's second largest software services exporter Infosys rallied 2% each.

Commercial vehicle major Tata Motors and leading IT services exporter Tata Consultancy Services gained 1.9% and 1%, respectively.

Fast moving consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever and state-owned power generation company NTPC rose 1% each.

Utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra was up 1.5% and car maker Maruti Suzuki went up 0.5%.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank and engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro dropped 0.87% each.

India's largest aluminium maker Hindalco Industries extended losses to 3%. Private steel company Tata Steel went down 1.55%.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC were down 0.23% and 0.6%, respectively.