Sensex up 127 points; reaches 2-month high on FII buying

Besides, brokers said that there was short covering by operators ahead of the expiry of March derivatives contract on Thursday, pushing up Sensex for the fifth session in a row.

Intra-day, the BSE benchmark index had crossed the 19,000 level. The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer Sensex resumed slightly lower but bounced back to reach 19,024.18, before ending the day at 18,943.14, a rise of 127.50 points or 0.68 per cent.
The NSE 50-issue Nifty also improved further by 33.00 points or 0.58 per cent to end at 5,687.25. It touched an intra-day high of 5,709.10.

The market remained buoyant despite steady to weak global cues, as Asian as well as European stocks displayed a narrowly mixed trend with downward bias.
Auto, capital goods and banking counters attracted good buying support and mainly supported the Sensex rise.

The main reason behind the sustained rally was continued buying by FIIs that have pumped in Rs 2,430.38 crore in last week, including provisional data of March 25.
Taking their cue, domestic players as well as retail investors stepped in supporting the market sentiment.

Marketmen also attributed to the positive sentiment to a drop in crude oil prices, easing concerns of inflation and a further hike in interest rate. Oil fell for the third day in New York, down 54 cents to USD 104.86 a barrel.

"The undertone has improved a little in the past few days on the back of strong FII inflows, tabling of long pending reform-centric bills in parliament and resilient world equities," said IIFL Head of Research (India Private Clients) Amar Ambani.

He added, however, that this week's trading sentiment is expected to be influenced by monthly expiry of the derivatives contracts for March.

Meanwhile, Asian markets closed narrowly mixed with downward bias. Key indices in China and South Korea closed with modest gains, while Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan finished with moderate losses.

European stocks too were trading side-ways with limited breadth in their afternoon trades. The CAC was down 0.10 per cent, the DAX by 0.24 per cent, while the FTSE was up by 0.10 per cent.

From the Sensex pack, the country's largest auto player Tata Motors was the top gainer with a rise of 3.25 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel (2.57 pc), L&T (2.56 pc), Reliance Infra (1.76 pc), Maruti Suzuki (1.69 pc), HUL (1.57 pc), NTPC (1.54 pc), SBI (1.40 pc), Bajaj Auto (1.35 pc), HDFC Bank (1.30 pc), ONGC (1.29 pc), Wipro (1.13 pc), ITC (0.82 pc), ICICI Bank (0.78 pc).

However, Jaiprakash Asso declined by 2.16 per cent, Rel Com by 1.50 per cent, Sterlite Ind by 0.89 per cent, Infosys Tech by 0.71 per cent and RIL by 0.26 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE-Auto rose by 1.52 per cent, BSE-CG (1.27 pc) and Bankex (1.21 pc), while BSE-HC dropped (1.17 pc) and BSE-Realty (0.56 pc).
Although, Sensex closed with gains, the total market breadth turned negative as 1,724 stocks closed in the red, while 1,243 finished in the green at the BSE.

The total turnover remained low at Rs 3,218.64 crore from Rs 3,290.68 crore last Friday.