Sensex gains in afternoon recovery; Pharma stocks rally

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Frontline Indian indexes were weak in morning trading, in line with the overall trend in Asian markets. They recovered most of their losses by early afternoon and gained ground later in the session as pharma, auto and FMCG stocks gained ground.

Sensex closed with gains of 81 points at 14218 and the Nifty gained 25 points to end at 4167. Nifty April futures closed at a premium of 9 points to the spot index while May futures closed at a premium of 7 points.

Pharma stocks saw a major rally today, led by Ranbaxy, which surged 5.85 per cent. Cipla soared 5.72 per cent and Glaxo gained 3.12 per cent.

Auto and 2-wheeler stocks had a good day as Hero Honda gained 4.25 per cent and M&M added 2.51 per cent. Tata Motors ended 2.35 per cent higher.

ONGC provided considerable strength to the rally with gains of 2.54 per cent while Reliance Industries added 0.98 per cent and Reliance Petroleum gained another 1.77 per cent.

ITC sustained its up trend and added 3.42 per cent and HLL closed 1.49 per cent higher.

Tata Power also continued its rally and ended 2.93 per cent.

HDFC was the best performer among financial stocks, adding 2.59 per cent.

Grasim led the cement pack with gains of 2.49 per cent while ACC closed 1.97 per cent higher.

Among other large caps, Tata Tea surged 14.61 per cent while Shipping Corp ended 13.8 per cent higher.

Technology stocks were weak today, though they recovered part of their early losses in the afternoon. Infosys lost 1.91 per cent while Satyam ended 1.72 per cent lower.

Zee Entertainment corrected after yesterday's sharp rally and was the worst performer among Nifty stocks with losses of 2.34 per cent.

MTNL remained weak and lost 1.61 per cent while Bharti Airtel lost 1.25 per cent.

Among metals, Tata Steel gave up 1.48 per cent while Sterlite Industries gave up 0.86 per cent.

Maruti corrected 0.63 per cent despite encouraging results announced yesterday.

Among other major losers, Gail India lost 2.11 per cent while L&T gave up 0.94 per cent.

Global markets / crude oil
US markets were mixed yesterday as data showed a sharp fall in existing home sales for the month of March, which accentuated fears that the housing sector recovery may not happen anytime soon. Correction in oil prices and strong guidance and share buy-backs from large technology companies acted as positive triggers.

The Dow closed with gains of over 0.25 per cent while the S&P 500 index gave up close to 0.05 per cent. NASDAQ ended with marginal gains of less than 0.05 per cent.

Most Asian markets remained weak today, though some of them made a partial recovery in the afternoon. Japan lost 1.25 per cent while South Korea ended 0.7 per cent lower. Singapore lost another 0.35 per cent and Hong Kong gave up nearly 0.2 per cent. Malaysia ended with modest losses.

Thailand added 0.7 per cent while Shanghai gained nearly 0.65 per cent. Indonesia ended with gains of nearly 0.25 per cent.

European markets opened higher and have gained further. Major European indexes are trading with gains of between 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent each in afternoon trading.

Crude oil prices gave up most of the previous day's gains yesterday. Near month NYMEX futures ended more than 2 per cent lower $64.58 per barrel yesterday and has gained modestly in European trading today.

Large-cap news flow

Mid-Cap Action
Mid-caps and small caps opened firm and gained further in the afternoon. The CNX Mid-cap index gained 51 points, or 0.97 per cent, to end at 5267. The BSE mid-cap index gained 1.04 per cent and the BSE small cap index closed 1.02 per cent higher.

Indian Bank continued its surge and added another 14.68 per cent while IFCI rallied 5.99 per cent.

Momentum buying continued in many mid-cap stocks today as well. Lumax Auto Tech and Orbit Corporation ended at 20 per cent upper circuits while many others ended at 10 per cent upper circuits.

Jai Balaji Sponge, Sri Ramrupai Balaji Steels, Garware Wall Ropes and Zensar technologies were the other major gainers among mid-caps.

Among mid-cap technology stocks, Patni gave up 4.87 per cent.

Godrej Consumer Products, NRB Bearing, Venus Remedies, HOV Services, Samtel, TVS Srichakra, Ruchi Infrastructure and Vakranjee Software were the major losers among mid-cap and small-cap stocks.

Mid-cap news flow

Thomas White Global Research, part of the Thomas White International Group, publishes capital market research for global institutions and investment banks.

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