Yes, with the Christmas still in the air, the bulls are in a merry mood making the most of festive spirit that prevails all around. And with the New Year just round the corner they are emboldened to keep the party going packing punch at every sally they make in each session. Will the blazing bulls striding march continue into the New Year well it’s worth the time to go into wait and watch mode and indulge in the revelry mood the bulls in the meantime are into.
Monday’s sterling rally that saw the Sensex soar by a scintillating 692 points was, in hindsight, only a pointer to the things to come. For, on Wednesday, with the bulls contuining from where they let off following Christmas Holiday on Tuesday, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-share sensitive index sprung by 338.40 points to end the day at 20,192.52.
With the binging bulls managing to build upon Monday’s momentum, even as the bears resorted to short-cover ahead of the F&O expiry, stretching the rally to the fifth consecutive day, key indices of the premier bourse spurted for a second day in running. With most of the European markets enjoying extending year-end holidays, and Asian markets exhibiting a mixed trend, market players on the Indian bourses brushed aside concerns about slowdown in the US economy and its ripple effect globally.
The benchmark Sensex resumed with a positive gap of 86.84 points at 19,940.96 from its Monday’s close of 19,854.12 and moved up to touch the day’s high of 20,211.47 on sustained buying in blue-chip pivotals.
Moreover, the barometer index hovered around the 20,000 level right through the day. Likewise, National Stock Exchange’s S&P Nifty Index crossed the the 6,000 level in the early trade to touch day’s high at 6,085.25, gaining about 100 points from day’s low of 5,988.45 before finally ending with a gain of 85.65 points, or 1.43 per cent up, at 6,070.75 in late trade.
And, a day’s breather on Tuesday, small-cap and mid-cap shares resumed their advance, and outperformed their larger peers. Market breadth was also positive, while the turnover too showed a marked improvement over the previous trading day, though this is expected on the penultimate day of derivative settlement.
The market breadth was strong with 24 out of 30 scrips from the Sensex pack ending in green. The BSE mid-cap index ended 2.05 pc to 9,400.96 and small-cap index gained 3.02 pc to close at 12,342.49 in the late trade. On the BSE, 2251 shares advanced as compared to 664 that declined with 30 shares remianing unchanged. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 7,634 crore compared to Rs 5,694.27 crore on Monday.
Lot of short cover
Indian shares rose 1.7 per cent on Wednesday to their highest close in two weeks. The BSE Sensex at 20,192.52 was its highest close since December 12, when the market had ended at 20,375.87. Furthermore, it was the first time since December 17 the index had been above 20,000.
According to leading fund manager there was a lot of short covering on leading counters. Local mutual funds were also deploying cash in the market with hopes of strong quarterly earnings providing the comfort. Further, according to him, the bullishness may continue in the near term if there are no major negative news from the global markets.
