The Hindu Business Line : Renewed interest , short covering buoy benchmark

THE upward journey continued on the markets, which ended the day with smart gains. The benchmark Sensex breached the 8700-mark before closing at 8647.1,while the Nifty closed at 8650.2.

Renewed buying interest in the index heavyweights along with huge short covering and roll over lifted the market sentiment.

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Infosys, which added 2.3 per cent after it announced that it may revise this year's sales and profits forecast was instrumental in the markets recording sharp gains. Satyam, Wipro and TCS also moved up strongly and joined the momentum.

Sensex, which opened on a flat note at 8588.5, crossed the 8700-mark in the intra-day trade. Sustained buying by the FIIs and strong participation by domestic funds helped the benchmark index close the day with a gain of 41 points.

The undertone on the National Stock Exchange was also largely bullish. Amongst the stocks that recorded sharp gains were Jindal Saw, Hindustan Construction, PSL, JP Associates, Apollo Tyres and Ingersoll Rand.

The 50-stock Nifty after scaling an intra-day high of 2633.9 closed at 2611.2,up 0.5 per cent.

The rally on Thursday was largely on account of renewed buying in the heavyweights. Stocks in the mid-cap and small-cap space lost steam on account of heavy selling pressure.

Prominent among the losers were HMT, Maharashtra Seamless, Radico Khaitan, Escorts, Madhucon Projects, Crew BOS and ITI. Mirroring the losses in these stocks, the BSEMIDCAP closed 0.5 per cent lower while the CNX Midcap was down by 0.4 per cent.

A few of those that managed to negate the trend were Cranes Software, NDTV, Sundaram Clayton, Rana Sugars, Torrent Cables, Gati, and Divi's Lab.

Other large-cap stocks that rallied sharply were BHEL, Cipla, L&T, Dr Reddy's, Gujarat Ambuja, ACC and Hero Honda.

Though the markets continued to be on the upswing, there was huge intra-day volatility on account of last day of September F&O expiry.

The stock of Britannia spurt up 9.4 per cent on the back of huge trading volumes. Close to 2,40,000 shares were traded on Thursday that imparted strong momentum to the stock.

Other FMCG stocks that ruled firm included McDowell and CCL Products.

There was a mixed bag of response among the pharma and healthcare stocks. Dr Reddy's jumped 3.3 per cent after the drugmaker agreed to jointly develop a diabetes drug with Denmark's Rheoscience A/S.

Venus Remedies, Orchid Chemicals, Glenmark Pharma and Shasun Chemicals netted off moderate gains. Morepen Lab, Ranbaxy and Elder Pharma, however, ended weak.

There was lacklustre trading among banking sector stocks. ICICI Bank lost 0.6 per cent after the RBI barred overseas investors from buying more shares of the country's second largest bank. UTI Bank, Andhra Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank, HDFC Bank and Allahabad Bank ended in the red.

Select stocks in the auto and auto-ancillary sectors put up a smart show. There was widespread buying action across the counters of TVS Motors, Apollo Tyres, Amtek Auto, Bajaj auto and M&M which helped them end in positive territory.

Firmness in metals and mining stocks in Asian markets lent optimism to their Indian counterparts. The stock of Sesa Goa was a major gainer, which shot up 2.9 per cent. Vesuvius, Hindustan Zinc, Tata Steel, GMDC and Jindal Steel also put up smart gains.

Strong buying interest in oil and energy stocks also fuelled the market sentiment. GAIL, Reliance, IOC, ONGC and Kochi Refineries were up by 0.8 per cent on an average.

Other notable gainers on the Nifty were Bombay Dyeing, Container Corporation, Essel Propack, Nagarjuna Construction, Thermax, Timken India, Madras Cement and Kirloskar Brothers.

Topping the list of losers were FCS Software, Himachal Futuristics, Chambal Fertilizers, Asian Paints, Nicholas Piramal and Corporation Bank.

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