The Hindu Business Line : A day to cheer for the markets

THE markets had all the reason to be on an upswing, what with SEBI set to introduce margin trading and securities lending scheme from February 1, talks between India and Pakistan and also the good results of Hughes Software clubbed with an optimistic business outlook.

The BSE Sensex rallied 151.52 points to close at Rs 6108.54 points (up 2.54 per cent). The index had lost over 80 points in the past two days. With all around buying interest on Thursday, the Sensex not only made good the loss but also put on smart gains. The Sensex opened firm at 5992.10 points and scaled a high of 6118.62, half-hour before the close for the day.

The S&P CNX Nifty gained 51.80 points to close at 1968.55 points (up by 2.7 per cent). Major index gainers were Infosys, ITC, SBI and Reliance. On a day of gains, muddying the picture were ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Ranbaxy, Colgate-Palmolive (India) and Britannia, which closed the day lower.

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ITC, which has a 5.7 per cent weightage in the Sensex, gained about 5.35 per cent to Rs 1077.25. The stock touched a new 52-week high of Rs 1085. About 2-lakh shares were traded in the BSE.

The market sentiment was positive with 1706 stocks gaining as compared with 483 stocks declining. Most of declines were in the B2 category, where 296 stocks out of the 1,001 declined. Information technology stocks got a booster with the third quarter results of Hughes Software, whose stock gained over 8 per cent to close at Rs 600.60. It has touched a new 52-week high of Rs 617 in earlier trades. The company has posted 110 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 23.9 crore (Rs 11.4 crore) and a 67 per cent increase in total income to Rs 98.8 crore (Rs 59 crore).

MphasiS BFL, which also had announced its quarterly results touched a new 52-high of Rs 850 during intraday. Selling pressure toward the end of the day, however, caused the stock to close lower at Rs 712, down by 2.74 per cent.

Other gainers included Satyam Computers, Wipro, Digital GlobalSoft, NIIT, Mastek and HCL Technologies. Infosys gained 2.91 per cent to Rs 5838.95 in anticipation of its third quarter results, which is due on Friday.

L&T gained 7.3 per cent to Rs 573.55 on the backdrop of its announcement that its heavy engineering division has bagged an order valued at Rs 137 crore.

Among the 36 stocks that touched new 52-week high were Punjab National Bank, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Maruti Udyog, Indian Overseas Bank, BPCL, State Bank of India, Reliance, Grasim, BHEL and LIC Housing Finance.

Nocil gained 5.62 per cent to Rs 26.30. The company had earlier announced that an associate of Reliance would invest in Nocil petrochemicals, a wholly owned subsidiary of the former.

High Volumes were evinced in Steel Authority of India, IFCI, MRPL, GTL, Gail India, Reliance, Tourism Finance Corporation of India and Canara Bank.

The BSE PSU index gained 4.53 per cent to 4361.89 points. The BSE Bank index, which is heavy on public sector banks gained over 1.97 per cent. Major gainers were MRPL, IOC, Gail India, Sail, ONGC, Bharat Earth Movers, BHEL and BPCL.

In the F&O segment of the NSE, the most active contracts were the January futures of Nifty, Satyam Computers, State Bank of India, Tata Motors and Tata Steel. The January futures on the Nifty gained 175.85 points to close at 5926 points. Open interest rose by 12 per cent.

The January 6000 call on Infosys was the most actively traded. Among the puts, the Nifty 1900-strike, 1930-strike and the 1950 - strike were the most actively traded.