Nifty closes above 5600; cement stocks outperform

The benchmark Nifty crossed another milestone today and closed at fresh 31-month high, led by technology, auto, cement and metal shares along with heavyweights Reliance Industries, L&T, ONGC and NTPC. It stayed above the 5600 mark for first time since January 18, 2008, despite weak European cues.

However, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, MD & CEO of Convexity Solutions says he would be very cautious as market has run up bit too fast. "The economic news which is emanating from Europe is not too good. So there will be some correction in the Indian markets also. The new set of counters has shown some upward movement based on some specific events and specific news. I don't think this can sustain for too long; there will definitely be profit booking and correction. Basically the rally is being driven by liquidity and nothing else, the fundamentals haven't changed, there hasn't been any earth shattering good news as far as Indian markets are concerned."

Financial, realty and select power companies' shares along with BHEL, Ranbaxy, Cairn, M&M, HUL and Sun Pharma capped the gains. Even the sell-off in European markets wiped out some gains; France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were trading 0.7-1.2% lower, at the time of closing of Indian equities.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 18645.06, up 85.01 points or 0.46% and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 27.05 points or 0.49% to settle at 5604. However, the Nifty September futures ended at 19 points discount, as per provisional data.

Huge buying was seen in cement companies' shares, which were outperformers for the day. Major cement companies' shares like ACC and Ambuja Cements shot up 6.7% & 7.815, respectively. Prism Cement, Andhra Cement and Madras Cements were up 14-16.5%.

UltraTech Cement, Barak Vally Cement, Binani Cement, Birla Corp, Chetinad Cement, Dalmia Cement, Heidelberg Cement, India Cements, JK Lakshmi Cement, Mangalam Cement, Saurastra Cement and Shree Cements rallied 3-11%.