Nifty recovers sharply to close flat; ONGC, Bharti, HUL up

The benchmark Nifty closed first session of the week on a flat note after seeing tussle between bulls and bears. It traded below the 4700 level in the first half of session on the back of weak Asian cues and some profit booking. However, it clawed back above that level post the positive European opening on likely easing of European debt worries as well as recovery in Asian markets. It also inched up near to 4800 mark, but the indices saw exterme volatility in last half an hour of trade.

European markets were trading 0.6-0.8% higher and the US index futures were up 0.2-0.5%, at the time of closing of Indian equities. Asian markets ended slightly mixed; Nikkei was down 1% and Kospi down 0.91%. Hang Seng was down 0.58% and Shanghai down 0.14%. Jakarta lost 1.7%, which had fallen over 3%. However, Straits Times was up 0.37%, which lost 2.5% during the day. Taiwan was flat.

The Advance GDP numbers for FY10 were in-line with estimates. India's economy is expected to grow at 7.2% in fiscal year 2009-10, the government said on Monday, reinforcing the possibility it may start to unwind its fiscal stimulus in the forthcoming budget.

The FY10 advance GDP estimate by the Central Statistical Organisation showed an uptick in growth estimates for manufacturing (8.9% compared to 3.2% last year), mining (8.7% vs 1.6%), industry growth (8.2% vs 3.9%) and construction growth (6.5% vs 5.9%). However, growth in financial services (9.9% vs 10.1%) and services (8.7% vs 9.8%) may come in lower.

Atsi Sheth of Macro Sutra said 7.2% was a little better than what we guessed. "We were at 7% and I think anything between 6.5-7% seemed reasonable given the data that we have. Even though economists pretend otherwise, forecasting is a very inexact science. So for all practical purposes 7.2% is equivalent to 7% and that seems like a very reasonable estimate."

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 15,935.61, up 19.96 points, after seeing day's high of 16,061.41 and low of 15,651.99. The 50-share NSE Nifty touched an intraday high of 4,799.05 and low of 4,675.40, before ending at 4,760.40, up 3.15 points.