Sensex maintains uptrend; broader indices outperform

Indian equity benchmarks maintained their uptrend at 14:45 hours though they came off their day's high a bit due to profit booking in some heavyweights like ONGC, ITC, Bharti Airtel and BHEL.

Buying continued in SBI, Reliance Industries, TCS, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Wipro, L&T, DLF and ICICI Bank, which were quite supportive. The 50-share NSE Nifty erased about 25 points from high point of the day to trade at 5,776, with gaining 39 points. Dilip Bhat, Joint MD, Prabhudas Lilladher Bhat warns that if Nifty moves upto 5800-5900, once again possibly some of the front line stocks may not start looking all that cheap or possibly even expensive. According to him, the market is largely looking for some kind of stability and if that really happens as over next two to three months, midcaps and small caps should participate a little more actively. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 133 points at 19,254 while the broader indices have good strength led by paper stocks - the BSE Midcap Index was up 1% and Smallcap up 2%. SBI, Titan Industries, Tata Coffee, Acropetal Tech, L&T, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank were the most active shares on the exchanges. Investors and traders looked bullish on paper stocks after the AP Paper Mills deal with US based International Paper. US based International Paper is going to acquire 53.5% stake in AP Paper Mills for USD 257 million + 21.5% stake in open offer for USD 104 million. AP Paper Mills was locked at 20% upper circuit. JK Paper, NR Agarwal and Pudumjee Pulp too jumped 20% each. West Coast Paper, Seshasayee Paper, Emami Paper, Ballarpur Industries and TNPL were up 13-18%. Orient Paper gained 9%. New Listing - PTC India Financial Services was trading at Rs 24.8, down 11.4% from issue price of Rs 28 a share. In midcap space, IVRCL Assets shot up 16%. JM Financial, Kirloskar Oil and ILandFS Transport gained 7-9%. However, Parsvnath, Sunteck Realty, KGN Industries, Bombay Rayon and Puravankara Projects fell 3-6%. In smallcap space, Smartlink Network and Lloyds Metals rallied 17-19%. However, R M Mohite, Fame India, Modern India, Falcon Tyres and Rollatainers lost 4-5%. _PAGEBREAK_ SBI, RIL, TCS, HDFC, L&T, HDFC Bank push Nifty at 5800 Finally the benchmark Nifty has touched the 5800 mark for the first time since January 25 on the back of strong support from almost all sectors. India's largest lender SBI's shares led the rally from front, with gaining more than 3% at 13:34 hours. PNB too gained 3%. Lot of action was seen in futures & options ahead of expiry on Thursday. The Nifty March futures were trading at 7 points premium and April futures 41 points premium. Nifty 5800 Call added 6.12 lakh equity shares while Nifty 5800 Put added 27,45,700 equity shares in open interest i.e. 70% addition, which means lot of put writing has been happening. Nifty 5900 Call added over 21 lakh shares in open interest. Nifty 6100 Call too was active, has seen 27% addition in open interest (more than 2 lakh shares). Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, TCS, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Wipro and L&T went up 1-2%. NTPC and Infosys were up around 0.5%. The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 19,325, up 205 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty surged 58 points to 5,795. European markets too were quite positive, with gaining nearly 1% following good US cues. Ambuja Cements was the top gainer, with rallying nearly 6%. M&M gained 3%. However, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Cairn, HCL Tech, Hindalco and SAIL were only losers. About 2056 shares advanced as against 711 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Midcap Index was up 1.3% and Smallcap up 2%. Paper stocks were on bulls' radar after the AP Paper Mills deal with US based International Paper. US based International Paper is going to acquire 53.5% stake in AP Paper Mills for USD 257 million + 21.5% stake in open offer for USD 104 million. AP Paper Mills was locked at 20% upper circuit. JK Paper, NR Agarwal and Pudumjee Pulp too jumped 20% each. West Coast Paper, Seshasayee Paper, Emami Paper, Ballarpur Industries and TNPL were up 13-18%. Orient Paper gained 9%. New Listing - PTC India Financial Services was trading at Rs 25, down 10.7% from issue price of Rs 28 a share. _PAGEBREAK_ Sensex surges; M&M, Cipla, JP Associates, DLF top gainers The benchmark Sensex added nearly 200 points today and maintained its upmove for the seventh consecutive session, aided by financial, technology, realty, infrastructure, oil & gas and select metal companies' shares at 12:08 hours. Jai Bala chief market technician with Cashthechaos.com feels that there is a potential for the market to go up to somewhere between 5800-5900. He believes,