Sensex ends above 9900 led by realty, IT majors

1 Apr 2009, 1754 hrs IST, Mohammed Sabir, ET Bureau

In absence of any domestic cues, Indian markets took directions from Asian markets and closed higher on Wednesday. Gains were led by buying in reality. IT and oil&gas majors while healthcare and FMCG underperformed.

Benchmarks tripped in the early trade but pulled back with recovery in Asian markets. Sustained buying during the afternoon helped indices to crawl back in the positive terrain. Weak opening of European markets had a negative impact but it was short-lived. Broader markets continued to outperform the benchmarks.

"Our cues will take centre stage once corporate and elections results are out. We are right now aligning with the global markets and moving in tandem with them," said technical analyst, Mitesh Thacker of miteshthacker.com.

The BSE Sensex closed at 9,901.99, higher by 193.49 points or 1.99 per cent from the previous close. Intraday, the 30-share index moved between 9,921.96 and 9,546.29 - a band of around 375.67 points.

The Nifty ended at 3060.35, up 39.4 points or 1.3 per cent over Tuesday's close. The NSE benchmark saw a high of 3069.30 and low of 2965.70 during the day.

"We are waiting for Nifty to break 3150 on the upside and investors should take long positions only after that. Once the resistance is broken we may see levels of 3350-3400," Thacker added

The small cap space outperformed the mid and frontline stocks, with the index of former ending higher by nearly 2.87 per cent. The midcap index gained 1.88 per cent.

Advances on BSE numbered 1,823 and declines were 558, while unchanged stocks were 82.

Index gainers comprised Ranbaxy Laboratories (7.73%), HDFC (6.7%), Reliance Infrastructure (6.64%), DLF (5.68%) and ICICI Bank (5.07%).

Sun Pharmaceuticals (-4.23%), BHEL (-2.15%), Grasim Industries (-1.72%), Bharti Airtel (-1.72%), Sterlite Industries (-1.21%) and NTPC (-1.03%) were the losers.

Among sectors, realty led the rally with a gain of 5.41 per cent followed by IT, oil & gas, banking and consumer durables. However, healthcare and FMCG sectors underperformed the index.

Wockhardt shares were hammered down after the company announced a major organisational change and admitted that it was facing problems in servicing its debt. Its chairman and managing director Habil Khorakiwala has stepped down as MD to make way for his younger son, while it has decided to approach the corporate debt restructuring cell through its lead banker in the wake of mounting debt. The scrip ended over 11 per cent lower.

Aptech announced its fourth quarter results. The company's standalone net profit
for FY08 was at Rs 4.75 crore versus Rs 2.46 crore. Net sales rose to Rs 113.66 crore versus Rs 99.26 crore.

The standalone net sales for December quarter was at Rs 26.85 crore against Rs 26.27 crore in previous quarter. It reported net loss of Rs 90 lakhs against profit of Rs 40 lakhs in the same quarter a year ago. The scrip ended 8.82 per cent higher.

European markets showed some resilience and were off early lows. FTSE 100 was down 0.32 per cent, CAC 40 fell 0.47 per cent and DAX was down 0.21 per cent. Wall Street is likely to open in the red as Dow Jones futures was down 0.83 per cent, S&P 500 futures moved 0.94 per cent lower and Nasdaq 100 declined 1.15 per cent.

via:E.T