Sensex Hits 18K

The benchmark Sensex added nearly 200 points in the afternoon trade following uptrend in Asian markets, tracking renewed confidence among investors after the technicians were successful in connecting power cables to nuclear reactors.

About 45 shares advanced among the Nifty 50 including oil & gas, infrastructure, auto, realty, FMCG, metal, financial and telecom companies' shares. The 50-share NSE Nifty was trading at 5,421, with gaining 56 points at 11:58 hours.


The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 178 points to 18,017. The Nifty March futures were trading at 15 points premium.

Japan's Nikkei 225 average shot up 4.36% or 401.57 points to 9,608.32 today, after seeing stabilisation in damaged nuclear plants. Other Asian markets were trading 0.2-0.6% higher.

"The problem of nuclear leakage appears to be moving in the right direction, which is helping shares," said Ryosuke Okazaki, chief investment officer at ITC Investment Partners Corp.

Technicians working at the stricken nuclear plant on Japan's Pacific coast have managed to attach power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one of them to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods.

All sectoral indices were in green. The BSE Realty, Auto, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas, Power, Metal, Healthcare, FMCG, Bank and IT indices were trading 0.5-1.5% higher.

Maruti Suzuki shares gained 2.5% as RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki said that its Japan plant was safe and would resume production from tomorrow onwards. The export production will not be impacted due to the Japan crisis.

Reliance Industries, Bharti, SBI, ITC, HDFC, NTPC, Infosys, BHEL, DLF, Tata Motors and L&T were supporting the markets, with rising 1-2%.

Nifty opens moderately high

Indian equity benchmarks started the trade on a positive note following strong global cues, reacting to easing Japanese crisis and M&A deal. SBI, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, L&T and BHEL were leading the markets higher.

Among frontliners, Hero Honda, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Reliance Communications, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Wipro and Infosys were pushing the markets higher in early trade.

However, ONGC, ITC, HUL, Ranbaxy Labs, Cairn, BPCL and HDFC Bank were witnessing selling pressure.

At 9:17 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 23 points to 5,387 and the 30-share BSE Sensex went up 76 points to 17,915 amid volatility.

The CNX Midcap climbed 31 points higher to 7,614. About 523 shares advanced as against 160 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

There were reports that the engineers had restored electricity to three reactors at the Fukushima plant and hoped to test water pumps at the damaged facility soon. Tokyo Electric resumes work to restore power at reactors numbers 1-4. Nikkei 225 Average jumped 3%.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Shree Renuka Sugars, Balrampur Chini, Bajaj Hindusthan and Triveni Engg jumped 1-3%. Sakthi Sugars, Oudh Sugar Mills and Dhampur Sugar rallied 5-6%. Yesterday, there were reports that Sharad Pawar is seeking Finance Minister’s intervention to permit sugar exports soon.

Strong global cues but Nifty ends with flat

Indian equity benchmarks closed the first session of a week on flat note amid a tight range since the beginning of trade. However, the global markets were strong in trade on Monday as the sell-off due to Japan crisis & Middle East concerns was overdone for the time being.

The 50-share NSE Nifty fell 9 points, to settle at 5,365, after witnessing a tight range of 5360-5400. It is likely to see the range bound move around 5300-5500, says Investment Advisor, SP Tulsian.

"I don’t think that there is much weakness but there is neither any enthusiasm as well. We need to play on the cues coming in from the global market. May be 5300 could see the renewed buying interest coming in or short-covering coming in and again whenever it moves to about 5500, we see the renewed selling or the shorts getting created. So, may be till expiry till [March 31] we are likely to see the move range bound move around 5300-5500," Tulsian said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 40 points, to close at 17,839. Dhiraj Agarwal, Director, Institutional Equities at Standard Chartered Capital Markets too said the short-term was very range bound.

Market is trying to make up its mind as to which way to go from a medium-term perspective. The series of events which have been unfolding in the last two weeks is a) difficult to fully understand what the implications are and b) difficult to forecast how these events will take shape in terms of how much incremental damage could there be, either it is Japan or the Middle-East. The market is currently displaying a sort of confused move, choppy on either side without going anywhere.

Nifty quiet

Indian equity benchmarks were hovering around their previous day's closing values at 14:31 hours and remained in a tight range since the beginning of trade today, despite strong global cues.

Investment Advisor, SP Tulsian feels that the market is likely to remain in a range around 5300-5500 till the expiry.

"I don't think that there is much weakness but there is neither any enthusiasm as well. We need to play on the cues coming in from the global market. In that scenario, whenever we see a fall of may be about 50 points on Nifty, the negative perception starts building up. However, I don't think that that kind of weakness really exists in the market. May be 5300 could see the renewed buying interest coming in or short-covering coming in and again whenever it moves to about 5500, we see the renewed selling or the shorts getting created. So, may be till expiry till [March 31] we are likely to see the move range bound move around 5300-5500.

Financial, steel and realty companies' shares were supporting the markets. Heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC too were on buyers' radar along with Tata Motors, M&M and Sun Pharma.

However, selling continued in TCS, Wipro, Ranbaxy Labs, Hindalco, NTPC, HUL, Infosys, Maruti, Cipla, Hero Honda, Ambuja Cements and Reliance Power.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 53 points at 17,932 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 20 points to 5,393.

On the global front, European markets like France's CAC rallied 2%, Germany's DAX jumped 3% and Britain's FTSE went up 1%. US index futures surged more than 1%.

Pipavav, Acropetal Tech, Fineotex Chemical, Sudar Garments, Tata Coffee, Reliance Industries, SBI, Infosys and Hindalco were the most active shares on exchanges.

HDFC, Sun Pharma, ITC up

The Nifty was extremely volatile in trade at 12:05 hours and was trading in a tight range of 5360-5400 since early trade. Market breadth was too mixed; about 630 shares advanced as against 622 shares declined on the National Stock Exchange.

The short-term is very range bound. "The market is trying to make up its mind as to which way to go from a medium-term perspective. The series of events which have been unfolding in the last two weeks is

• difficult to fully understand what the implications are and
• difficult to forecast how these events will take shape in terms of how much incremental damage could there be, either it is Japan or the Middle-East."

"The market is currently displaying a sort of confused move, choppy on either side without going anywhere. It just might continue like that for a while more," he added.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 76 points at 17,955 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 25 points to 5,397, supported by oil & gas, financial, capital goods and steel companies' shares.

Jindal Steel, M&M, HDFC, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, Sun Pharma, SAIL and Dr Reddy's Labs were top gainers, moving up 1-2%.

However, Ranbaxy Labs was the top loser with 4.6% loss as Mylan is seeking to block Lipitor generic in US. Lipitor was estimated to add USD 500-600 million to Ranbaxy's sales.

Infosys, TCS, HUL, NTPC, Reliance Communications, Cipla, Maruti, Hindalco, PNB and Reliance Capital were other losers in trade.

Crude prices have been on a rise since the past many months now and the unending unrest in the Middle-East is pushing it further up. Brent climbed 1.5% on Monday towards USD 116 per barrel after western forces launched a military campaign against Libya, stoking fears of intensifying violence in North Africa and the Middle-East.