SENSEX RALLIES SECOND SESSION

RISE 402 POINTS ON POSITIVE CLUES

Rising for the second straight day, the benchmark BSE Sensex surged 402 points today to close at over two-week high of 27,507.30 on RBI rate cut hopes, better-than-expected corporate earnings and firm Asian cues. The NSE Nifty too spurted by 133.75 points or 1.63 per cent to settle at one-week high of 8,325.25. Meanwhile, to assuage concerns of foreign investors slapped with MAT demand, the government today put on hold issuance of fresh notices and any further assessments on levy of this tax on such entities. Traders said, China slashing interest rates by 25 basis points and US reporting strong jobs data boosted market sentiment in emerging nations, including India. "Though it is not certain if China’s latest interest cut could be taken as a positive for Indian markets, it sure did help traders’ sentiments, which were looking for cues to carry on with Friday’s short covering," said Anand James, Co Head Technical Research Desk at Geojit BNP Paribas. Meanwhile, the government will unveil inflation data based on the consumer price index (CPI) for April and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for March tomorrow. The BSE 30-share Sensex resumed on a positive note and touched an intra-day high of 27,544.24 before settling 401.91 points or 1.48 per cent higher at 27,507.30. Earlier, it had ended at 27,735.02 on April 23. Of the 30 Sensex stocks, 26 ended with gains. The index had gained 506.28 points on Friday after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley referred the MAT issue to a high-level committee. 

The broader 50-issue NSE Nifty regained the 8,300-mark to hit session's high of 8,332.75 and concluded 133.75 points or 1.63 per cent higher at 8,325.25. On the day, Bank of Baroda's reported a decline in its standalone net profit by 48 per cent to Rs 598.35 crore for the quarter ended March 31. "Among major market moving events in the economy, Bank of Baroda surged more than 17 per cent intraday on the back of significant improvement in asset quality," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President at Bonanza Portfolio. Buying was witnessed across the board as 11 out of 12 BSE sectoral indices closed in the green in the range of 0.90 to 2.52 per cent. Metal, auto, banking, consumer durables, healthcare, IT, oil&Gas, power, consumer goods and teck segments taking the lead.

Rise in heavyweights like HDFC, SBI, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank, Vedanta, TCS, Axis Bank, L&T and Hero MotoCorp together contributed almost 350 points to the Sensex surge. Second-line stocks, too, were in demand on good buying from retail investors after the recent heavy sell-off. "Indices added over one and half per cent as blue-chip companies traded higher on value-buying with well supported from strong Asian market. Now traders are eagerly waiting for the series of US data lined for the week," said Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research at Veracity Broking Services. In other Asian markets, except Taiwan, which ended in the red, other indices concluded higher between 0.51 and 3.04 per cent. The US Dow Jones last Friday ended 1.49 per cent higher, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq grew 1.17 per cent. Back home, SBI was the biggest gainer on the Sensex with a rise of 5.44 per cent, followed by Vedanta 5.34 per cent, Hero Motocorp 3.59 per cent, HDFC 3.16 per cent, Tata Motors 3.15 per cent, Tata Steel 2.91 per cent, Bajaj Auto 2.48 per cent, Sun Pharma 2.41 per cent, Hindalco 2.19 per cent, ICICI Bank 2.04 per cent and NTPC 1.97 per cent. Among the BSE sectoral indices, metal rose by 2.52 per cent, followed by auto 2.52 per cent, bankex 2.40 per cent, consumer durables 2.27 per cent, healthcare 1.69 per cent, power 1.56 per cent, IT 1.34 per cent, consumer goods 1.18 per cent and teck 1.12 per cent. Smallcap and midcap indices also rose by 1.28 per cent and 2.53 per cent, respectively. The market breadth remained positive as 1,760 stocks ended with gains, 969 stocks finished in the red, while 102 ruled steady. The total turnover dropped to Rs 2,718.72 crore from Rs 2,960.28 crore last Friday.