Gujarat Polls, IT stocks spread X'mas cheer in mkts

BJP has won Gujarat Election for fourth consecutive term and got 117 seats. Mr Narendra Modi will become Chief Minister for third consecutive term. It has given positive indication that the mid term poll will not happen in 2008. This election results cheered all Gujarat based companies' shares. Recently listed Mundra Port gained all-time high at Rs 1192, up 12%. Reliance Industries surged over 3%. Other major gainers were Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals, Gujarat Ambuja Exports, Gujarat Apollo Industries, Gujarat NRE Coke, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers Company, Gujarat State Fertilizers Company and Gujarat Industries Power Co.

Market breadth was very strong; about 2077 shares have advanced, 981 shares declined, and 40 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex gained 716.43 points or 3.74% before closing the day at 19,854.12, up 691.55 points or 3.61%. The Nifty fifty ended at 5985.10, up 218.60 points.

Technology stocks outperformed all indices after long tenure of underperformance on the back of rupee appreciation. The BSE IT Index surged 6.3% in an intraday trade. It closed at 4,581.61, up 6.04%. Star performers were Wipro, Infosys, Satyam, TCS, HCL Tech, Patni Computer and Mphasis.

Top gainers on the bourses were Wipro, Infosys, HDFC, Satyam, Reliance Energy, GAIL, VSNL and PNB.

The BSE Midcap Index closed at 9,211.71, up 2.06% and Small Cap Index gained 1.42% at 11,980.57.

Total turnover for the day was at Rs 100366.06 crore, including NSE cash at Rs 14127.5 crore, NSE F&O at Rs 80577.10 crore and BSE cash at Rs 5661.46 crore.

Second biggest gainers were banking stocks, which includes PNB, IOB, ICICI Bank, Oriental Bank, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and SBI. The BSE Bankex was up 363.15 points or 3.38% at 11,101.74.

Metal stocks also shined. The BSE Metal Index shot up by 3% at 18,820.79 due to buying interest in Jindal Saw, Nalco, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries and Sesa Goa.

Oil stocks like GAIL, ONGC, BPCL, Reliance Petroleum, Essar Oil, RNRL, IOC and Reliance Industries surged higher. The BSE Oil & Gas Index was up 3.53% at 12,678.32.

The BSE Power Index closed at 4,353.21, up 3.37%. Power stocks including Areva T&D, Reliance Energy, BHEL, Suzlon Energy, Tata Power, CESC and Torrent Power charged up.

Realty companies like Mahindra Life, Anant Raj Ind, Parsvnath, Ansal Properties, Peninsula Land and Phoenix Mills have gone up by 3-7%. The BSE Realty Index was up 1.76% at 11,818.52.

The BSE Capital Goods Index gained 2.66% at 19,223.88 on the back of strong buying in Areva T&D, Gammon India, Punj Lloyd, BHEL and Reliance Infra.

Pharma stocks like Pfizer, Sun Pharma, Opto Circuits, Divis Labs and Ipca Labs ended higher. The BSE Healthcare Index was up 1.23% at 4,294.83.

Buying interest was also seen in FMCG stocks including United Spirits, HUL, Bata India, United Breweries and P and G. The BSE FMCG Index gained 0.92% at 2,218.74.

The BSE Auto Index was up 0.82% at 5,586.83. Stocks like M&M, Punjab Tractors, Tube Investment, Apollo Tyres and Tata Motors moved up.

Telecom stocks like VSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Comm, MTNL, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices also ended with positive returns.

IFCI, Reliance Energy and Reliance Industries were most active shares on the bourses.

Asian stocks also closed on strong note. Taiwan Weighted was up 194 points at 3434.53. Kospi gained 41.15 points at 1,919.47. Jakarta Composite closed at 2657.98, up 11.75 points. Shanghai Composite was up 132.48 points at 5,234.26.

Markets

• Asian markets had a strong session of trade on back of positive cues from US
• Sensex up 691 pts at 19854.1; NIfty up 218.6 pts at 5985.1
• Relative outperformance seen in large caps
• CNX Midcap Index up 2.2%, BSE Small-cap Index up 1.42%
• BSE IT Index up 6%; Wipro up 8.5%, Satyam up 7%, Infosys up 6.7%
• Index Gainers; GAIL up 9.5%, VSNL up 9.2%, PNB up 6.9%
• BSE Oil & Gas, Bank up nearly 3.5% each
• Non-Index Gainers; Mercator Lines up 9.1%, Indiabulls Fin up 7.25%, Everonn, Sintex up 10%
• Gujarat Poll Impact: Mundra Port up 9%, GHCL up 13.7%, Guj Narmada Valley up 9.5%
• Losers: Thomas Cook down 10%, SPARC down 6%, Tourism Fin down 5%
• NSE Advance Decline ratio at 3:1
• Total market turnover at Rs 1 lakh cr

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