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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Markets firm up gains; Sensex up 623 points, Nifty up 189 points, biggest single day gain in 21 months


Sensex roars past 18,000, up 623 points

Mumbai: It was a bouyant day for the stock markets, with the Sensex lodging its highest single day gain of 623 points at 18,477, after May 18, 2009, when the BSE benchmark closed up 2,111 points after the UPA 2 was re-elected to power. The Nifty shut shop at 5,522 up 189 points.

Yesterday's Budget allayed fears of a persistent volatile market environment, owing to geo-political reasons in West Asia, and the markets closed positively after choppiness marked trade since the eruption of civil turmoil in Libya.

After a strong opening this morning, following a fairly satisfactory Budget yesterday, and positive response from industry, the bourses clocked in gains, with the Auto index leading the gains, mostly. A firm uptrend continued to mark the late session of trades, as the Sensex traded at its intra-day high post 1500 hours, when it touched 18,479.

The Budget proved a relief rally for most investors, as the government doled out proposals to counter rising inflation, and further economic growth. For the next fiscal, the government increased the IT exemption limit for individuals from Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh.

Top gainers on the Sensex were auto major Mahindra & Mahindra at Rs 665 up up by a whopping 8%, followed by Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,293 and Jaiprakash Associates at Rs 83 both up 7%.

NTPC at Rs 181, Hindalco Industries at Rs 212 and ICICI Bank at Rs 1,026 were the other significant gainers, all up 6%.

In the broader markets, the Mid-cap and Small-cap indices under-performed the benchmark; the Mid-cap index was up 3% at 6,577, while the Small-cap was at 8,003 up 2.4%.

Amongst the sectoral indices, the Auto index held ground for most part of the day today, after last week's dismal performance amidst fears of a hike in excise duty.

A concessional excise duty of 10% on fuel cell vehicles has been extended to hydrogen cell technology-based vehicles, and a further concessional rate of 5% excise duty has been prescribed to incentivise their domestic production.

All in all, the auto sector saw a lot of positive new flow from the Budgetary proposals. With the government keeping the excise duty intact, auto stocks rallied, and the index was seen trading at a premium of 6% at 8,718.

Major gainers in this space were Asok Leyland at Rs 52, which leaped 11%, Bharat Forge at Rs 333 up 9% and M&M at Rs 665 up 8%. Apollo Tyres and Maruti Suzuki were other gainers up 7% each.

Banking stocks also performed robustly as the Budget propsed for a Bill to be tabled in the Parliament in order to sanction banking licences to non-banking players in the country.

The Bankex was up a little more than 4% at 12,355. Top gainers in this sector were IndusInd Bank at Rs 233, Yes Bank at Rs 272 and ICICI Bank at Rs 1,026, all up 6%.

With the Budget's provisions to allow for the creation of debt funds, and the extension of a tax benefit for infra bonds, realty stocks picked up during the latter part of the day.

At 2,065, the Realty index closed up 4%, and the major gainers in this space were DB Realty at Rs 117 up 7%, Sunteck Realty at Rs 350 and HDIL at Rs 166, both up 5%.

Capital Goods stocks also witnessed heavy buying, which propelled the index to 12,861 to close up 4%, as the FM chalked out a parallel excise exemption for domestic suppliers to mega or ultr-mega power projects. Gammon India at Rs 127 up 10%, Havells India at Rs 345 up 9%, and Suzlon Energy up 7% at Rs 50 were the gaining stocks.

The Consumer Durables index was the sectoral laggard at 5,728 up nearly 2%.

Even the Asian markets saw a fairly positve day, with most of the major indices extending gains from their previous closes.

The Nikkei shut shop at 10,754 up 1.2%, while the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.5% at 2,920, comparitively lower than its peers, because of a drop in its month-on-month PMI numbers. The Hang Seng also closed up marginally in the positive at 23,396.

Singapore's Straits Times lodged gains of 2% at 3,068, and the Taiwan Weighted ended the day up 1.5% at 8,728. The Seoul Composite was the only Asian index to close in the red at 1,939 down 1.2%.

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