Equity markets after witnessing volatility in late trade managed to soar higher and close in positive for the day. It was the weakness in European markets which dragged domestic indices lower in red towards the end of the trading session; however markets regained their positive territory to close above the flat line. Market breadth turned negative as on BSE 1,526 shares declined and 1,380 shares advanced.
The BSE Sensex touched a intraday high of 16,788 and then slipped to a low of 16,611 before it ended 0.6% or 95 points higher at 16,739 near the day’s high. Mid cap and small cap stocks inched higher but were still lagging their large cap peers. Both the BSE Mid-cap and BSE Small-cap indices grew by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively. The S&P CNX Nifty grew by 0.6% or 30 points to close at 5,049.
Majority of the indices on the BSE sectoral space ended higher with the BSE Bankex index emerging as the top gainer which grew by 3.5% on expectation that the RBI will start cutting rates in the following monetary policy reviews. The other two interest rate sensitive sectors too surged on similar lines. The BSE Auto and BSE Realty indices grew by 0.7% each. On the other hand, the defensive stocks played spoilsport as both the BSE Healthcare and BSE FMCG indices emerged as the bottom performers as they lost 0.4% and 2% respectively.
Among the BSE – 30 stocks, 11 stocks declined while the others inched higher. ITC. M&M, Maruti, Hindalco and Coal India were the top five losers in red which shed 3.6%, 2.7%, 2.6%, 2% and 1.9% respectively. On the flip side, the top five gainers were Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, BHEL and Hero Motor which each surged by 6.2%, 5.8%, 3.4%, 3.1% and 2.6% respectively.
As per the data released by SEBI, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in equity to the tune of Rs 289 crores. Similarly they were net buyers in debt segment to the extent of Rs 180 crores.