The Hindu Business Line : Major indices post robust gains on buying support

Taking cues from global stock market trends of this week and riding the wave of optimism from the good set of earnings numbers announced by Indian companies, the major indices at domestic stock exchanges posted a robust gain on Friday.

General Market Trend

The positive vibes from the US Federal Reserve's decision to hold interest rates at current levels and the general upbeat corporate sentiment prevailing in the key stock markets in the US, Europe and Asia has had a salubrious effect on the stock market here.

During the last three trading sessions of this week (including Friday), the benchmark indices have risen by over 1.5 per cent, despite a weak, negative start on Monday.

Friday's opening at the stock exchanges was strong and within minutes the BSE Sensex jumped by over 100 points. While there were a few counters amongst index-heavyweights that faced a bit of build up in selling pressure at these levels, the overall sentiment continued to remain strong. The strength was visible from the Sensex managing to hold on to the gains of the first few minutes right through during the morning and early afternoon of the trading session.

The post-lunch session on Friday witnessed another surge of buying and the resulting Bull-run took the Sensex up another 100 points and more. Friday's intra-day high for the Sensex at 12,921 points was just shy of the all-time high of 12,994 points recorded earlier this month. After closing the day at 12,907 points, the BSE Sensex gained about 208 points or 1.64 per cent during the closing session of the week.

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Among the indices, BSE Bankex rose 84.06 points at 6398.65, Auto index by 71.78 points at 5393.44, BSE-TECk index by 60.81 points at 3287.18, IT sector index by 49.13 points at 4804.25, metal index by 29.57 points at 9131.61, Healthcare index 25.03 points at 3629.84, Consumer durable index by 24.92 points at 3256.75 and FMCG index by 24.29 points at 2010.45.

There were just four losers from the Sensex's thirty stocks. The total traded value of Sensex stocks was in excess of Rs 850 crore.

According to provisional data, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 109.57 crore on Friday.

Stock Specific Action

There were no specific sectors that were prominently in the black or in the red on Friday. However, stocks from the information technology sector were more subdued than the others. Banking sector stocks continued to post healthy gains.

One of the stocks that were in the limelight on Friday was Development Credit Bank (DCB), a new listing, which posted good gains on the back of considerable appetite amongst investors.

The stock, which was issued at a price of Rs 26, quickly climbed up after the opening bell to an intraday high of Rs 48.7 and eventually closed the day at Rs 47.5, a gain of 82.5 per cent. The stock raked up a first day trading turnover of Rs 368 crore and a total of 8.19 crore shares changed hands.

Amongst the big gainers from the Sensex, were Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Grasim Industries, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Reliance Energy and State Bank of India.

The Bharti Airtel stock posted gains on the back of the strong quarterly results announced by the company on Friday.

Amongst the Sensex stocks that were a shade weak on Friday were Tata Steel, TCS, L&T and Hindalco. The other prominent losers were Suzlon, Jet Airways, Sun Pharmaceuticals, MTNL and ICICI Bank.