Indian Market Commentary
11/20/2009 6:23 AM ET
(RTTNews) -
After struggling in negative territory till mid-session, the Indian market reversed its direction to close sharply higher on Friday, buoyed by positive opening of the European markets and comments by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia that the government is unlikely to impose a tax on capital inflows. A sudden bout of short covering also helped the benchmarks close near the day's high.
On the economic front, the results of a NCAER (National Council of Applied Economic Research) survey showed the business confidence index bounced back in October to surpass the level prevailed prior to the global financial meltdown, improving investor sentiment.
While Asian markets witnessed a mixed trend on Friday on worries about the state of the U.S economy, European stocks snapped a three-day losing streak in early trading, led by gains in banks and oil producers. However, U.S stock futures were pointing towards a lackluster opening on Wall Street Friday morning.
Back home, the BSE Sensex which fell to as low as 16,636 in the afternoon reversed direction to hit a high of 17,042 before closing at 17,022, up 236 points or 1.41% from its previous close. Likewise, the S&P CNX Nifty climbed 63 points or 1.27% to 5,052.
Second-line stocks underperformed, with the BSE mid-cap index moving up a little over a percent and the small-cap index by a mere 0.43 percent.
The advances were led by banking, oil &gas and metal stocks, while consumer durable stocks such as Titan Industries, Rajesh Exports and Blue Star ended in the red on profit taking.
Among the top gainers, India's largest cement maker ACC rallied 4.55%, aluminium maker Hindalco advanced 3.47%, infrastructure firm Jaiprakash Associates rose 2.73%, steel maker Tata Steel gained 2.66% and mortgage lender HDFC added 2.58%.
Mahindra & Mahindra, SBI, DLF, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Grasim Industries, TCS, Sun Pharma, Sterlite Industries, ITC and ICICI Bank were the other prominent gainers.
On the flip side, telecom operator Bharti Airtel fell 1.40% after it slashed mobile roaming charges by around 60 percent. However, Reliance Communication rose 0.81%, Idea Cellular added 1.09% and Tata Teleservices edged up 0.19%.
High-beta stock Reliance Infrastructure declined 0.62%, domestic car market leader Maruti Suzuki eased 0.26% and industrial goods maker BHEL slipped 0.06%.
Pantaloon Retail India rose 1.76% after the company proposed to raise up to Rs.500 crore via a QIP issue. However, Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren tumbled 3.76% on announcing fund-raising plans.
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