Sustained buying by foreign funds pushed up the Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index, Sensex, on Monday to a two-month high of over 18943, up 127 points, led by auto, capital goods and banking stocks amid easing crude oil prices.
Besides, brokers said that there was short-covering by operators ahead of the expiry of March derivatives contract on Thursday, pushing up Sensex for the fifth session in a row.
Intra-day, the BSE benchmark index had crossed the 19000-level. The BSE 30-share barometer resumed slightly lower but bounced back to reach 19024.18, before closing at 18943.14, a rise of 127.50 points.
The NSE 50-share Nifty also improved further by 33 points to 5687.25. It touched an intra-day high of 5709.10.
The market remained buoyant despite steady to weak global cues, as Asian as well as European stocks displayed a narrowly mixed trend with downward bias.
Auto, capital goods and banking counters attracted good buying support and mainly supported the Sensex rise.
The main reason behind the sustained rally was continued buying by FIIs that have pumped in Rs.2,430.38 crore last week, including provisional data of March 25.
Taking their cue, domestic players as well as retail investors stepped in supporting the market sentiment.
Marketmen also attributed to the positive sentiment to a drop in crude oil prices, easing concerns of inflation and a further hike in interest rate. Oil fell for the third day in New York, down 54 cents to $104.86 a barrel. “The undertone has improved a little in the past few days on the back of strong FII inflows, tabling of long pending reform-centric bills in Parliament and resilient world equities,” said IIFL Head of Research (India Private Clients) Amar Ambani. However, he said this week's trading sentiment was expected to be influenced by monthly expiry of the derivatives contracts for March.
Meanwhile, Asian markets closed narrowly mixed with downward bias. Key indices in China and South Korea closed with modest gains, while Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan finished with moderate losses.
European stocks too were trading side-ways with limited breadth in their afternoon trades. From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors was the top gainer with a rise of 3.25 per cent at Rs.1,220.30, followed by Bharti Airtel 2.57 per cent at Rs.347.80, L&T 2.56 per cent at Rs.1,639.20, Reliance Infra 1.76 per cent at Rs.662.10, Maruti Suzuki 1.69 per cent at Rs.1,201.80, HUL 1.57 per cent at Rs.275.25, NTPC 1.54 per cent at Rs.185.05, SBI 1.40 per cent at Rs.2,747.30, Bajaj Auto 1.35 per cent at Rs.1,399.30, HDFC Bank 1.30 per cent at Rs.2,291.30, ONGC 1.29 per cent at Rs.279.20, Wipro 1.13 per cent at Rs.461, ITC 0.82 per cent at Rs.178.70, ICICI Bank 0.78 per cent at Rs.1,099.35.
Rupee drops 16 paise
The rupee snapped its six-session winning streak on Monday falling by 16 paise against the U.S. currency due to fresh dollar demand from importers despite bullish equities and increased capital inflows.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee settled at 44.83/84, a loss of 16 paise over the previous close of 44.67.68. The rupee opened lower at 44.72/74 a dollar from its last weekend's close of 44.67/68 and remained in the negative terrain throughout the day to touch a low of 44.90 before settling at 44.83/84.
