The Hindu Business Line : Waiver gives fillip to stocks; Sensex up 461 points

Mumbai, Sept. 8 The waiver for India from the Nuclear Supplier’s Group (NSG) and the decision of the US Government to bail out mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gave a boost to Indian stocks on Monday.

The former bit of news lifted power and capital goods stocks, while the latter gave a fillip to bank stocks.

Sensex closed up 3.18 per cent or 461.14 points at 14944.97.

At the opening, the index had a positive gap of 494 points; it gained as much as 624 points intra-day at 15,107. The CNX Nifty was up close to three per cent and closed at 4482.30 points.

Banking stocks made the most gains, the BSE Bankex rising 4.06 per cent, followed by BSE Capital Goods and Power indices (up 3.36 per cent each).

“The capital goods stocks like L&T, BHEL and ABB; power transmission stocks, heavy engineering stocks, and construction sector stocks, which are the major beneficiaries of the nuclear deal, are expected to continue their uptrend. The American Depository Receipt banking sector stocks and realty sector stocks may also see buying interest,” said Mr Alex Mathew, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

A total of 1,665 stocks advanced and 1,034 stocks declined on the BSE. Mid-cap and small-cap indices too, ended up more than one per cent.

The top gainers included Sterlite Industries (up 5.88 per cent), ICICI Bank (up 4.89 per cent), SBI (up 4.81 per cent), Larsen and Toubro (up 4.63 per cent), NTPC (up 4.58 per cent) and HDFC Bank (up 4.27 per cent). All the 30 blue-chip companies listed on Sensex ended the day in the black.

FIIs were net buyers for Rs 253.43 crore, whereas the domestic institutions were net sellers for Rs 132.62 crore.

The last hour of trading saw the Sensex shed a little of the gains it had made during the day as short-term traders booked profits, said Mr P.K. Agarwal, President Research at Bonanza Portfolio.