Mumbai: The Indian stock market ended on a positive note on Monday, after a somewhat lackluster session. With some key results due this week and the data on industrial production and consumer price inflation due as well, the mood was a bit cautious at times.
A fairly steady trend in Asian markets after centrist Emmanuel Macro won the French presidential election aided sentiment. Stronger than expected jobs growth in the U.S. increased speculation about U.S. interest rate hikes and this limited market's upside.
The BSE benchmark Sensex, which rose to 30,016.04 around mid morning, ended the session with a gain of 67.35 points or 0.23% at 29,926.15. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange ended up 28.75 points or 0.31% at 9314.05, nearly 25 points off the day's high of 9338.70.
In the forex market, the rupee was trading at 64.23 against the U.S. dollar around late afternoon, up 15 paise or 0.23% from its previous close of 64.38 a dollar.
Realty, telecom and information technology stocks had a good outing. The BSE Realty index advanced as much as 4.53%, thanks to strong gains posted by Indiabulls Real Estate (12.3%), HDIL (7.7%), DLF (6%), Prestige (4.75%), Omaxe (3.4%) and Phoenix (2%). Unitech ended 1.7% up, while Godrej Properties and Sobha posted modest gains.
In the telecom sector, Idea Cellular ended 7.2% up, Reliance Communications and TTML gained about 4%, Tata Communications advanced 2.1% and Bharti Airtel gained nearly 2%. MTNL ended modestly higher and Bharti Infratel edged up slightly.
Among IT stocks, Tech Mahindra gained nearly 2%. HCL Technologies, Infosys, Oracle Financial Services and MindTree gained 1% - 1.5%. Tata Consultancy Services ended nearly 1% up and Wipro gained 0.7%.
Among other gainers in the IT space, Mastek, Hexaware Technologies, Mphasis and Cyient gained 4% - 5%. NIIT Technologies gained nearly 4% on strong results. Datamatics, Nucleus Software and NIIT also ended with strong gains.
Among the stocks in the Bankex, ICICI Bank, Federal Bank, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank gained 1.2% - 1.6%. State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Yes Bank ended with modest gains, while HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank edged up marginally.
Among automobile stocks, Eicher Motors gained 4.2% on strong results and capex plans. Hero Motocorp, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors ended with modest gains. Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto ended weak. Auto components stocks Motherson Sumi Systems and Cummins India ended sharply higher.
Ambuja Cements (up nearly 5%) and ACC (2.7%) rallied sharply after the companies made separate announcements that a special committee of directors, comprising largely of independent directors, has been constituted to start evaluation of a potential merger between the two companies.
Lupin gained 2.35%, bouncing back after recent losses. Asian Paints, ONGC, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Cipla, NTPC and Power Grid Corporation gained 0.5% - 2%.
ITC,HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, Adani Ports, Reliance Industries, BPCL, Indian Oil Corporation and Hindalco ended weak.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 2960 stocks traded on BSE, 1619 stocks advanced. 1150 stocks declined and 191 stocks ended flat.
