Nifty closes with modest gain ahead of expiry; BPCL up 6.9%

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The Nifty remained positive throughout the session though it turned choppy in the second half of trade, ahead of tomorrow's F&O expiry. It closed above an important psychological 5,100 mark while the Sensex ended just below  17,200 levels. Positive global cues lent support to Indian indices.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries helped the markets to major extent. It remained positive as it will go ex-bonus tomorrow. It closed 0.8% higher while went up over 2% during the day. The company had declared 1:1 bonus in the month of October.

Shares of oil & gas, FMCG, banking (barring ICICI Bank), select technology, cement, auto and metal companies helped the indices while realty, power and

Index	Closing Value	Chg (%)
FMCG	2,928.47	1.44
OIL&GAS	10,470.43	1.09
BANKEX	10,334.82	0.51
CAP GOODS	13,502.25	0.5
AUTO	7,082.29	0.37
IT	4,860.29	0.16
POWER	3,009.21	0.07
METAL	16,221.25	0.03
TECk	3,046.25	-0.03
MIDCAP	6,493.16	-0.12
SMALLCAP	7,605.26	-0.16
PHARMA	4,738.89	-0.49
REALTY	3,712.52	-2.93

telecom stocks along with ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Jaiprakash Associates capped the gains to major extent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,198.95, up 67.87 points and the Nifty was up 17.60 points to settle at 5,108.15. The broader indices ended marginally lower.

The Nifty November futures will expire on Thursday, which closed with 4 points premium while December futures with 17 points premium as per provisional data. Rollovers approached 60% mark today. The Nifty Open Interest PCR (put-call ratio) surged to 1.70.

On the global front, Asian markets ended higher. Shanghai bounced back 2%, after it lost 3.5% yesterday. Hang Seng was up 0.84%. Among others, Nikkei, Kospi, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.3-0.5%. European markets went up 0.6% and US index futures were trading 0.4% higher, at the time of writing this report.

Mahindra Satyam fell 6% in early trade, as in a 200-page supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the investigative agency said investors have suffered losses of close to Rs 14,000 crore from the Satyam scam. But after CLSA report, the stock slipped further and closed 11% lower. CLSA said investors should exit the stock as it did not have fundamental value trading at current levels and that normal financials of the company would be known only by June 2010.

Recently, reports said about 37 creditors were claiming about Rs 1,030 crore as dues from the company but the new management, led by Executive Vice Chairman Vineet Nayyar of Mahindra Satyam, categorically denied any out-of-court settlement.

Sugar stocks rallied post UP Sugar Association reached pact with farmers. Now, UP Farmers will get Rs 190-195/quintal for sugarcane. Currently UP SAP (state advisory price) is at Rs 160-165/quintal, so UP mills will pay Rs 25 over SAP. This is positive for UP sugar mills. On the contrary, Karnataka and Maharashtra are paying Rs 230/quintal for cane.

Bajaj Hindusthan was up 4.77%, as it finalised power capacity expansion to 830 MW. The company is going to set up 5 power plants costing Rs 1,600 crore within 20 months.

Among other sugar stocks, Dhampur Sugar was up 3.70. Balrampur Chini, Dharani Sugars, EID Parry, Oudh Sugar Mill, Shree Renuka, Simbhaoli Sugar, Triveni Engg, Upper Ganges and Uttam Sugar were up 1-3%.

In the oil & gas space, BPCL shot up 6.88%. According to sources, Oman Oil will invest Rs 1,220 crore to up stake in BPCL JV by increasing stake in Bharat Oman Refineries to 26%. Fall in crude prices was another reason; Crude future was trading at $ 76.38 a barrel, up $0.36 on the NYMEX.

Among others, GAIL rose 4.27%. HPCL and IOC gained 2.6-3%. ONGC went up 0.54%.

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