The bulls continued to hold fort for the third straight session in a row. The Nifty added half a percent to its rally while the bank nifty choose to tear away, leaving behind its April scars as far as possible.
Though it was a bit dull and humid in Mumbai today, it was raining gains for rate sensitives — realty and banking — stocks. Dealers say the street has priced in a 50 bps policy rate cut and huge cash buying is being witnessed in beaten down marquee names.
Oil and gas, healthcare, and capital good stocks were the other major contributors in today’s rally. However, FMCG and IT stocks lagged. Post lunch, IT stocks saw some short build up with heavyweights like Infosys, TCS and HCL Technologies losing out.
Market participants cheered Moody’s statement on the Indian economy. The rating agency expects growth for 2013 to hover around 5.5-6.5%.
April indirect tax collection rose 3.3% YoY adding to the cheer.
The Sensex ended at 20,247, up 34 points, while the Nifty closed at 6,170, up 23 points.
The BSE Small-Cap and Mid-Cap index was up 1% each.
Despite a positive close for the markets, the advance-decline ratio marginally favoured the bears. On the BSE, 1032 stocks declined for every 952 advances, while 96 stocks remained unchanged.
United Spirits ended flat at Rs. 2,314 per share post its Q4 FY13 results. Amar Ambani, Head of Research at IIFL, said the results reaffirm its shift towards premium liquour brands with a 30% year-on-year growth. He feels the run up in the stock post its Q3 results leaves little room for further upsides.
Volatility, as measured by India VIX, was down 2.1% to close at 17.74. It hit a day’s high of 18.52 and low of 17.46.
Stocks in news:
Apollo Hospitals, Oil India, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare and Wockhardt gained on news of their inclusion in the MSCI India index, effective May 31.