Mkts close high on earning expectations

Mumbai: The markets almost recovered Wednesday's loss and closed higher, which was in line with global cues.

Banking and technology stocks led the rally ahead of the second quarter earnings expectations.

The Sensex finished at 12,389.41, up 185.40 points or 1.52 per cent. It touched an intraday high of 12,415.97 and an intraday low of 12,299.21.

The Nifty rose 1.41 per cent to close at 3564.90. It touched an intraday high of 3574.95 and an intraday low of 3515.60.

The BSE Small Cap and Midcap indices also gained 1.74 per cent at 6,261.89 and 1.98 per cent at 5,229.05, respectively.

The market breadth was positive, about 1808 shares have advanced, 650 shares declined, and 80 shares are unchanged.

The total turnover was Rs 32637.84 crore. The NSE and BSE cash segment recorded turnover of Rs 7354.74 crore and Rs 3666.23 crore, respecively. The NSE F&O registered turnover of Rs 21616.87 crore.

Top gainers on the bourses were HDFC Bank (3.98 per cent), Infosys (3.47 per cent), Gujarat Ambuja Cements (3.21 per cent), Tata Steel (2.68 per cent), SAIL (5.94 per cent) and Oriental Bank (3.78 per cent).

However, Bharti Airtel (-0.48 per cent), Reliance Energy (-0.33 per cent), Dr Reddy's Labs (-0.11 per cent), Suzlon Energy (-0.76 per cent), Tata Power (-0.31 per cent) and ABB (-0.18 per cent) were losers.

The BSE IT Index outperformed other indices as huge buying was seen in Moser Baer, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Patni Computer, MphasiS BFL and TCS. The Index was up 2.43 per cent or 104.69 points at 4,404.08.

Analyst from UBS said that a mild slowdown in US growth rates is unlikely to impact Indian IT companies.

Banking stocks like Bank of India, Karnataka Bank, Allahabad Bank, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank, Oriental Bank, PNB and Union Bank also led the rally. The BSE Bankex closed at 6,096.42, up 2.34 per cent or 139.60 points.

Metal stocks including SAIL, Tata Steel, Mah Seamless, Jindal Saw and JindalStainless ended in the green. The BSE Metal Index surged 147.87 points or 1.75 per cent at 8,589.18.

Gammon India, KEC Infrastructures, Alstom Projects, Dredging Corporation, BEML, Lakshmi Machine and Larsen spurted up. The BSE Capital Goods Index surged 129.71 points or 1.61 per cent at 8,162.32.

The BSE Auto Index rose 1.5 per cent to end at 5,460. Auto stocks like Tube Investment, Apollo Tyres, Asahi India, MRF, Cummins and Amtek Auto firmed up.

FMCG stocks including Britannia, Colgate, P&G, Dabur India, ITC and HLL gained. The BSE FMCG Index soared 1.26 per cent at 2,051.72.

The BSE Oil & Gas Index was up 0.95 per cent at 5,763.29 as Petronet LNG, Reliance Natural, HPCL, Chennai Petro, BPCL and ONGC surged.

Consumer durables stocks like Whirlpool, Blue Star, Su-Raj Diamonds, Samtel Color and BPL moved up. The BSE Consumer Durables Index increased by 0.96 per cent to close at 3,107.20.

Wyeth, Cipla, Lupin, Ipca Labs, Sterling Bio and Nicholas Piramal were gainers in pharma index. The BSE Healthcare Index also a part of the rally, closed at 3,638.63, up 0.66 per cent.