The Hindu Business Line : IT, metals lift Sensex to 5-month high

On a day when Asian markets were range-bound and the US markets marginally in the red overnight, the BSE Sensex chose not to emulate its peers and staged a solid comeback to gain about 185 points. The BSE-30 index hit its five-month high before it settled above 12,500 during close. The BSE Sensex is now only about 75 points away from its lifetime closing high. The Nifty followed suit and gained about 62 points to close at 3,621.

Crude prices continued its downtrend and expectations of a robust second quarter triggered renewed buying across the board.

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Though the day's rally was broad-based, prominent buying in IT, metals and consumer durables helped the upsurge. The market sentiment was bullish; which reflected in the advance-decline ratio of 1.3:1.

New listing

Richa Knits got listed at Rs 30.95 on the BSE against the issue price of Rs 30. The stock touched an intra-day high of Rs 40 with a volume of about 1.9 crore shares.

Buzzing stocks

Shringar Cinema closed at its upper circuit limit of 9.98 per cent at Rs 61. The stock surged on reports that the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and the Reliance Industries are in separate discussions with the promoters to buy a substantial stake in the company.

HDFC, TCS, Wipro, Infosys and State Bank of India were some of the large-caps that posted gains for the day. Among the midcaps, Phoenix Mills, Geodesic Systems, NDTV and Everest Kanto were the gainers. Rain Calcining, DS Kulkarni, Atlanta and Crest Animations were some of the gainers in the small-cap segment.

Grasim Industries, Murli Agro, GMR Infrastructure and Indian Overseas Bank were among scrips that touched their all-time highs during the day.

Sector focus

The BSE IT index posted a gain of 2.27 per cent for the day. Major gainers in the sector were HCL Technologies, Ramco Systems, Moser Baer, MphasiS BFL and Infotech Enterprises. Allsec Technologies surged 5.70 per cent after a private equity firm bought 7.5 lakh equity shares, at Rs 258.50 per share.

The metals pack rallied, with the respective index gaining 2.6 per cent on Thursday. Sterlite Industries gained 5.6 per cent; SAIL gained 4.5 per cent; JSW Steel gained 4.5 per cent. Other counters to clock gains were Ennore Foundries, Binani Industries, Electrosteel and Hindustan Zinc.

Shares of oil marketing companies surged as crude prices touched its eight-month low. Hindustan Petroleum gained 6.5 per cent; Bharat Petroleum gained 2.8 per cent and IOC up 1.3 per cent. Other scrips to post gains in the oil and gas space were Essar Oil, Reliance, GAIL and Bongaigaon Refineries.

With the onset of the festival season, consumer durables sector witnessed renewed buying. Stocks to surge in this space were Timex Watches, Videocon Industries, Titan Industries and Gitanjali Gems. Rajesh Exports led the gainers pack with a gain of 8.3 per cent on news that it has launched two more retail showrooms in the North under the brand name "Laabh Jewellers".

Stock-specific action

Torrent Pharmaceuticals surged 5 per cent on news that it has entered into an agreement with Tasly, a Chinese pharma company, to exclusively market their blockbuster drug, Cardio-tonic pill, in India.

Subex Azure gained 3 per cent after it bagged a contract to provide its fraud management system to Safaricom, a Kenyan mobile services provider.