Nifty hits 5800 on short covering; BHEL, Hindalco, SBI up

The benchmark Nifty clawed back above 5800 level in early trade on Tuesday, after heavy sell-off seen in previous five sessions. Metal, auto, banking and infrastructure companies' shares were seeing short covering.

Among frontliners, Hindalco, Sterlite Industries, Ambuja Cements, ACC, DLF, HCL Tech, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, M&M, Tata Motors, SBI, IDFC, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, BHEL and Jaiprakash Associates were on buyers' radar.

However, Maruti, Tata Power, SAIL and Wipro were witnessing selling pressure.

At 9:16 hours IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 19,418, with a gain of 194 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 57 points to 5,820.

The CNX Midcap went up 61 points to 8,347 and the BSE Smallcap up 17 points at 9,115. About 641 shares advanced as against 206 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

State-run BHEL will get Rs 6,100 crore orders from Rajasthan State, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting NW18 sources. It was lowest bidder for supplying 2 units of 660 MW each. The stock jumped over 3%.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Hexaware was up 2.4% as company's board approved 1:1 bonus share issue and will pay Re 1/share special interim dividend.

iGATE open offer for Patni will start on March 4 and close on March 23, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting NW18. Patni Computer was flat in trade.

Nagarjuna Fertilisers approved oil operations demerger into Nagarjuna Oil Refinery. The stock was up 2%.

Subex, Praj Industires, Gujarat NRE Coke, Educomp, HDIL, Ashok Leyland and JSW Steel were up 2-3%.

South Indian Bank rose 2.7% and Yes Bank gained 1.5%.

Delta Corp jumped 3.6% and Dabur was up 2.4%. HCC went up 2.4%.

However, Balrampur Chini, Bajaj Hindusthan and Sakthi Sugar were down just 0.3-0.8%. Shree Ashtavinayak tumbled 5% and RaviKumar Distilleries plunged 10%.

_PAGEBREAK_

Global cues:

Asian markets were mixed in trade. Shanghai, Nikkei and Kospi fell 0.2-0.4% while Hang Seng and Straits Times gained 0.3-0.5%. Taiwan rose 1%.

The US markets recovered from day's low to end flat on Monday. Euro fell to a four-month low against the dollar on rising debt concerns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 37 points at 11637, after seeing recovery of 64 points from day's low of 11,573.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 5 points at 2708, after a recovery of 25 points from day's low of 2,682. The S&P 500 Index ended down 2 points at 1260, after seeing recovery of 8 points from day's low of 1262.

There were reports that Portugal was under pressure from Berlin and Paris to seek a bailout, few reports suggest that the bailout could be as big as Euro 80 billion; Portugal denied it ((Remember, Greece and Ireland have already accepted bail-outs))

Commodities

February crude oil ended up 1.4% at USD 89.25/barrel

February natural gas contract was down 0.3% at USD 4.40 per MMBtu

February gold contract was up 0.4% at USD 1374.10/ounce

March silver contract was up 0.9% at USD 28.86/ounce

F&O cues:

Total Nifty futures down Rs 1500 crore, Options up Rs 7266 crore

Stock futures net shed 1.25 crore shares in Open Int

Nifty Fut Open Int net add 2 lakh shares in Open Int; Nifty futures prem down to 4 pts versus 10 pts

Nifty Open Int PCR down at 0.97 from 1.03

Nifty Put add 42 lakh shares in OI, Call adds 78 shares in Open Int

Highest Open Int outstanding at 6200 call, 6100 Call, 5800 Put, 5700 Pput

Nifty 5800 Call adds 32.2 lakh shares in Open Int; prem down from 170 to 92

Nifty 5900 Call adds 24 lakh shares in Open Int; prem down from 120 to 54

Nifty 5600 Put add 17.2 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 6000 call adds 14.4 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5700 Put adds 14 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5700 Call add 10.6 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5900 Put sheds 16.2 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 6000 Put sheds 13.7 lakh shares in Open Int