March 28, 2011 / 16:01 IST
Financial, infrastructure, auto and FMCG companies' shares were supporting the Sensex to touch the 19,000 mark and the Nifty to 5,700 level in the afternoon trade today. ONGC, Bharti Airtel and Wipro were other gainers. Reliance Industries too turned back into green territory.
"Valuations at 15x 1-year forward is below average. The consensus earnings growth is seen at 19%. We are turning incrementally positive on private banks & capital goods. ICICI Bank, HDFC, L&T and BHEL are our top picks," Bharat Iyer of JPMorgan said. He says, however, oil remains a concern area in the short-term.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 165 points to 18,980 and the 50-share NSE Nifty jumped 43 points to 5,697 at 14:53 hours.
Largecaps like L&T, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infrastructure, HUL and IDFC were the top gainers, with climbing 2-3.5% higher.
However, the selling continued in Sun Pharma, Infosys, Sterlite, DLF, Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Communications, Ranbaxy, Reliance Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Cipla.
In midcap space, Sterlite Tech was up 18% and Parsvnath up 13%. Unichem Labs, Essar Shipping and Tube Investment gained 5-8%. However, Aurobindo Pharma, Den Networks, KGN Industries, Va Tech Wabag and Cox & Kings slipped 4-6%.
In smallcap space, Asian Star, Falcon Tyres, Koutons Retail, Elantas Beck and Great Offshore rallied 9-11%. However, Bhagwati Banq, Career Point, Chromatic India, Parrys Sugar and Prakash Steelage fell 6-7%.
LIC Housing Finance, SBI, Lovable Lingerie, ICICI Bank, L&T, Infosys and Reliance Industries were the most active shares on exchanges.
_PAGEBREAK_Nifty hits 5700; banks, infrastructure, autos supportIndian equity benchmarks touched the important psychological levels amid a choppy trade at 13:30 hours - the Nifty hit the 5,700 mark and the Sensex 19,000 level - supported by financial, infrastructure, FMCG and auto companies' shares.The market is currently at 2-month high by factoring in all those negative news like massive 9 magnitude earthquake in Japan followed by tsunami and blasts in nuclear plants, and geo-political tensions in Middle East & North Africa. Falling crude oil prices could be another reason behind today's rally - London Brent crude was trading below USD 115 a barrel, down over 0.5%.Technical analyst Mitesh Thacker of miteshthacker.com believes the March series should close on a positive note.
