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Suresh Parthasarathy

Markets for a change opened in red to close the day in green. Positive global cues helped the markets to settle after a shaky start. Chinese regulator moves to curb stock prices failed to impact the markets, which went on to close at an all-time high and had a positive effect across Asian peers.

Markets appear to have set aside inflation worries, at least temporarily, with crude prices moving southwards. The telecom regulator's announcement of more than 37 per cent cut in the levy paid by private players to BSNL was received well by the sector and this also helped the market sentiment.

Huge buying witnessed during the last hour of trading pushed the markets up, to close with a gain (of 239.94 points) for the third time in a row. The Sensex finally managed to close above 12,945.88. Midcap and small cap indices failed to participate in the rally; however they managed to close in green. The broader market's Nifty added 66.95 points to close at 3,764.55.

The breadth of the markets, however, failed to favour advances as 1,155 stocks advanced against 1,370 declined. For a change, all the sectoral indices closed with a gain, including the FMCG.

Buzzing Stocks

With lower volumes, close to 25 stocks in the Sensex basket ended in green reflecting the market's mood. Corporation Bank gained the most; the others to follow suit were Jet Airways, Crompton Greaves, CESC and Ashok Leyland. And in the mid-cap space Mro-tek continued its northward journey on Wednesday; other gainers in this sector were Paradyne Infotech, City Union Bank and Yes Bank.

Sector Focus

Banking sector, which was battered for quite sometime, became the star of Wednesday's trading. Banking index gained 4 per cent and a majority of the public sector stocks added value.

Bank of Baroda surged 6.7 per cent to Rs 213.05 and the other prominent gainers in this space were Bank of India, UTI Bank, State Bank of India and Union Bank of India, all of which gained 3-5 per cent. Among the private players ICICI Bank was the star performer.

Click here for table

FMCG had a mixed bag in Wednesday's trading. Hindustan Lever, ITC, Dabur and Procter and Gamble added values to the previous close. Those that closed in red were Britannia, GlaxoSmithkline Consumer and United Breweries.

Despite the rupee's continuous rise over several days information technology stocks gained with Infosys Technologies leading the pack with a gain of Rs 39.45 to Rs 2,093.85. Patni Computers, Satyam Computer and Wipro were the other gainers.

Those that failed to follow the trend were Financial Technologies, HCL Technologies and MphasiS BFL.

Stock Specific Action

Jubilant Organosys announced it recently added annual contracts worth $60 million (Rs 264 crore approximately). The stock managed to add Rs 2.15 to close at Rs 252.

Suryajyoti Spinning announced it has raised $10 million (Rs 44 crore) by issuing FCCBs . The bonds, which have listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, are convertible into ordinary/equity shares at a price of Rs 85 per share. The stock reacted positively to gain 4.4 per cent to close at Rs 59.40.

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