Sensex ends above 17000 after 16 months; Bankex up 4%

The Sensex closed above the 17000 mark for the first time since May 21, 2008. The Nifty was just sniffing distance away from the 5600 level. The BSE bankex outperformed all the other sectoral indices; it was up nearly 4%. Strong buying was seen in metals, auto, realty, capital goods, IT, power and oil & gas stocks.

Reliance, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Wipro, L&T, SBI and HDFC were the positive contributors to the bourses while ITC, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Power Grid and GAIL were the negative contributors.

The Sensex ended up 273.93 points or 1.63% at 17126.84. It touched an intraday high of 17,142.52 and an intra day low of 16,868.46.

The Nifty closed up 77.10 points or 1.54% at 5083.95. It touched an intraday high of 5087.60 and an intraday low of 5004.35.

The markets breadth was positive, about 1651 shares advanced, 1240 shares declined, and 319 shares were unchanged.

Dhiraj Agarwal of Anand Rathi Financial Services said that valuations currently were neither too expensive nor very cheap. He further said the markets could go higher from a valuations perspective. However, he said he could not rule out the possibility of a bubble. "The Nifty floor is seen at around 4,750-4,850 levels," he said.

Top gainers on the Sensex were SBI at Rs 2,195.70 up 5.01%, ICICI Bank at Rs 904.80 up 4.63%, Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,698.90 up 3.70% and Sterlite Ind at Rs 775.35 up 3.46% and M&M at Rs 881.20 up 3.46%.

However, top losers on the Sensex were ONGC at Rs 1,171.30 down 1.25%, ITC at Rs 231.90 down 1.07%, Grasim at Rs 2,768.35 down 0.73% and Bharti Airtel at Rs 418.55 down 0.07%.

The BSE bankex outperformed all the other sectoral indices; it was up 3.69% or 350 points at 9855. Stocks like Axis Bank, Oriental Bank, SBI, IOB and ICICI Bank were up 5-6%.

In the IT space, Financial Tech, Wipro, Patni Computer, TCS and Oracle Financ were up 1-5%.

In the capital goods sector, AIA Engineering, Bharat Elec, Elecon Eng, Jyoti Structure and BHEL surged 2-10%.

In the power pack, Torrent Power, BHEL, Neyveli Lignite, ABB and Tata Power were up 1-5%.

In the metal space, Jindal Saw, Jai Corp, Sterlite Ind, JSW Steel and Hindalco were up 2-5%.

In the Pharma sector, Dishman Pharma, Wockhardt, Bilcare, Apollo Hospital and Aurobindo Pharm gained 3-13%.

Auto stocks like Escorts, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Mah and Mah and Exide Industries rose 3-7%.

Oil & gas stocks like Aban Offshore, Reliance, BPCL, HPCL and Cairn India were up 0.31-2.58%.

Most active shares on NSE - Oil India at Rs 1,133.30 with a volumes of 19,689,859, Reliance at Rs 2,200 with volumes of 4,174,332, Axis Bank at Rs 977.70 with volumes of 9,003,388, ICICI Bank at Rs 904 with volumes of 8,234,108 and SBI at Rs 2,210.50 with a volumes of 2,929,585.

Top percentage gainers on the BSE were Cable Corp at Rs 21.10 up 19.89%, DIL at Rs 288.75 up 19%, Henkel India at Rs 43.25 up 18.17%, Maxwell Ind at Rs 22.30 up 17.99% and Nova Petrochem at Rs 28.15 up 17.29%.

Top gainers on the BSE Midcap - Central Bank, Parsvnath, Dishman Pharma, Asian Star and HMT were up 10-16%.

Top gainers on the BSE Smallcap - Henkel India, Paper Products, Delta Corp, Premier and KLG Systel were up 10-18%.

Turnover: The market saw total turnover of Rs 82231.76 crore. This included Rs 20150.03 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 55412.81 crore from the NSE F&O and the balance Rs 6668.92 crore from the BSE cash segment.

New listing: Oil India ended its first trading session at a huge premium of 8.10% to its issue price of Rs 1,050. The share closed at Rs 1,135 on the NSE. It touched an intraday high of Rs 1,156.70 and intraday low of Rs 1,090.

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