The Indian market although sandwiched between holidays ended with smart gains on Thursday amid short covering in the Banking, Metals, and Telecom stocks. In addition, good long rollover was witnessed in the Nifty and the Banking Nifty.
After opening on a flat note, markets slipped in the early trades however as the day progressed sentiment got a boost after higher opening seen in the European markets. Barring the Auto stocks all the other major S&P BSE sectoral indices ended in the green. The S&P BSE Metals, Capital Goods and the Consumer Durables index were among the top gainers gaining 2.7%, 2.1% and 1.9% respectively.
On a year to date basis the Nifty has registered losses of 4.5%. However, the market has recorded gains of almost ~6% in the fiscal year.
Finally on Thursday, BSE Sensex closed at 18835, up 131 points over the previous close. It had earlier touched a day’s high of 18874 and a day’s low of 18568. It opened at 18702.
The NSE Nifty closed 5,682, up 41 points over the previous close. It earlier touched a day’s high of 5,692 and a day’s low of 5,604. It opened at 5,647.
“In the coming week, market participants would look forward for the fourth quarter current account numbers and eight infrastructure industries data to be released. Technically, the Nifty found support at the 38.20% retracement level for entire rally since May 2012 and 200-DMA placed at 5,624. We expect, the Nifty to continue with the upward momentum in the coming days. A close above 5720 would further accelerate the bullish stance,” says Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL.
Indian stock markets will remain shut on Friday this week on account of Good Friday.
Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Gail India, Hindalco Inds, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Inds, ONGC, Coal India, HDFC Bank, L&T, SBI, HDFC were among gainers in Sensex and Nifty.
RIL, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Cipla, Bajaj Auto, HUL, Hero MotoCorp, were among losers in Sensex and Nifty.
The advance decline ratio was in favour of bulls. 1623 stocks advanced against 1151 declining stocks, while 124 stocks remained unchanged.
The INDIA VIX was down 3% to close at 15.32. It hit a day’s high of 16.20 and day’s low of 15.31.
Stocks which hit 52-week high during the week were Piramal Ent, Nilachal Refractories, Dhanleela Inv, Sam Leaseco, SHRSHA TEX.
Stocks which hit 52-week low during the week were ABB, Ansal Prop, Force Motors, Banco Products, Best & Crompton.
On the global front, Japan’s Nikkei share average fell to a one-week closing low. The Nikkei closed 1.3% lower at 12,335.96, staying below its five-day moving average of 12,437.27. The Hang Seng index was down 0.7% and the Shanghai Composite index declined by 3%.
European markets have opened higher with CAC, DAX and FTSE adding 0.5%, 0.3% and 0.4% respectively