Sensex closes 421 pts higher; Metal index up 5%

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The Sensex gained 452 points intra-day trade on Tuesday, continuing a positive uptrend for the second consecutive session in the year 2012. Global cues and the rally in most beaten down sectors like capital goods, banks and metals boosted the confidence of the Indian equities.

The Sensex rose 421.44 points or 2.72%, to close at 15,939.36 led by 28 stocks. The Nifty rallied 128.55 points or 2.77%, to end at 4,765.30.  

Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com feels there may be some more headroom for the market. "Given today's momentum, it seems likely that we will cross 4800."

But that doesn't change the bearish nature of this market, he adds.

Anand Tandon, CEO of JRG Securities said it was little early to turn very bullish on the market. "I think the expectation coming into this year was almost zero if not negative."

Asian peers showed good performance today. Hang Seng, Kospi, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted gained 1.5-2.7%. Today, European markets like Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE rose over 1% while France's CAC fell 0.5%.

Back to Indian markets, the BSE Metal Index was the star performer, rising 5%. Capital Goods, Bank and Realty indices were up over 4%. Power, TECk, IT, Oil & Gas, Auto and Pharma indices gained 1.5-3%.

In the metals space, Sterlite, Tata Steel, Coal India and Jindal Steel shot up 4.5-6%. Among banks, ICICI Bank was up 4% and SBI rose 4.7%; HDFC Bank went up nearly 3%.

Capital goods majors L&T and BHEL surged 5% each. DLF topped the buying list, rising nearly 7%. Shares of largest commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors was up 5.5%.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys were up 2% each; Bharti Airtel jumped 3.8%.

However, shares of oil marketing companies were under pressure after these companies said they would not hike petrol prices. BPCL was down 1.6%. M&M, Ambuja Cements and Hero Motocorp fell 0.5-1.4%.

The broader indices too followed the same trend like benchmarks - the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up over 2.3%.

TV18 Broadcast and Network 18 shot up 20% each after the TV18 Broadcast's board members approved acquisition of ETV channels and rights issue of Rs 2,700 crore. (Note: Web18, which owns Moneycontrol.com and Indiaearnings.com, belongs to the Network 18 Group).

The market breadth was strong as well; about three shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.