Mumbai: Global cues were not any strong, but the mood in the Indian stock market was bullish on Wednesday after the weather office forecast good southwest monsoon rains, and the resultant strong gains recorded by front line stocks lifted benchmark indices Sensex and the Nifty50 to new all-time highs.
Quarterly earnings reports were not anything spectacular, but there were no big shocks either. Some rating upgrades wooed investors to a few front line counters.
The BSE benchmark Sensex ended up 314.92 points or 1.05% at 30,248.17, slightly off a record high of 30,271.60. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange, which spurted to 9414.75, ended at 9409.85, gaining 93 points or 1%.
The Indian Meteorological Department made a projection that monsoon could be ‘normal’ this year and bring 100 per cent rainfall instead of 96 per cent projected earlier.
Telecom stocks, led by Bharti Airtel, had a pretty good outing. Bharti Airtel started off on a weak note, reacting to weak results. The company reported a 72% drop in net profit in the January - March 2017 quarter. However, it recovered swiftly and kept surging higher and higher as the session progressed to eventually end with a gain of nearly 8%.
Idea Cellular gained 4.2%, MTNL ended 3.75% up and Reliance Communications advanced 1.85%, while Tata Communications gained 1.2%. Bharti Infratel and TTML ended modestly higher.
Automobile stocks rallied. There were strong gains for FMCG stocks as well. Among automobile majors, Eicher Motors, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra & Mahindra gained 2.5% - 3%. Bajaj Auto rallied 1.75%, Maruti Suzuki gained 1.6% and Tata Motors ended 1.3% up, while Hero Motocorp added 1%. Auto ancillaries stocks Exide Industries, Motherson Sumi Systems and Bharat Forge also ended on a firm note.
In the FMCG space, Hindustan Unilever gained 4.6%, after a foreign brokerage firm raised the rating on the company's parent Unilever PLC. Marico, EID Parry, DFM, Balrampur Chini Mills, United Spirits, Britannia Industries, GlaxoSmithKline Healthcare, Kohinoor, Nestle, Dabur India, Heritage Foods and Emami were among the other major gainers in the FMCG space. ITC, Colgate Palmolive, Tata Global Beverages and United Breweries posted modest gains.
Metal, healthcare, oil, consumer durables, capital goods and power stocks found support.
JSW Steel, Vedanta, Orissa Minerals and Tata Steel were the prominent gainers in the metal space.
Among healthcare stocks, Aurobindo Pharma gained 4.2%. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals ended 3.4% up. Cipla, Piramal Enterprises, Glaxo, Divi's Laboratories, Lupin and Dr Reddy's Laboratories also ended on a firm note.
Bank stocks turned in a mixed performance.
Reliance Industries gained 2.3% and ONGC ended 1% up. BPCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation also ended higher, while Indian Oil Corporation declined.
Consumer durables stocks Titan and Whirlpool, capital goods stocks CG Power, Sadbhav Engineering, ABB, Lakshmi Machine Works, Thermax, Suzlon, AIA Engineering, GE T&D, Havells, BEML, Wabag, BEL and Siemens, and power stocks JSW Energy and CESC ended with strong gains.
IT and realty stocks were a bit subdued.
Several stocks from midcap and smallcap segments posted impressive gains.
The market breadth was slightly positive. Out of 3021 stocks traded on BSE, 1627 stocks advanced. 1220 stocks declined and 174 stocks ended flat.
