An evening walk down Dalal Street | Bulls look to take charge on D-Street as Sensex rises over 130 points; Indiabulls Hsg up 8%

At the close of market hours, the Sensex was up 137.25 points or 0.38% at 36484.33, and the Nifty up 52.80 points or 0.48% at 10961.50. The market breadth was positive as 1594 shares advanced, against a decline of 984 shares, while 147 shares were unchanged.

The day began on a positive note as Sensex gained around 100 points, while the Nifty clocked 10,900 in the opening tick. A weak show by markets around the world, due to fall in crude prices, spelled good news for India.

Indices further extended their gains through the afternoon session. However, last hour witnessed marginal profit booking. The market closed with minor cuts in its gains.

Among sectors, banks, automobiles, consumption, and infrastructure names were the big gainers, while the Nifty Midcap index rose over a percent. IT and pharma were the big losers.

Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Indiabulls Housing and Bajaj Finserv were the big gainers, while Sun Pharma, Infosys, and HCL Technologies lost the most.

Stocks in the News

Minda Corporation shares gained 1 percent after research house Edelweiss Securities said Bharat Stage VI norms would benefit the company immensely.

Lemon Tree Hotels shares gained 2 percent as the company added new hotel property in Pune, Maharashtra.

Commercial Engineers and Body Builders shares were locked in 5 percent upper circuit at Rs 24.70 after the company received order for wagons from Indian Railways.

Mishra Dhatu Nigam shares rallied 2 percent after the company has finalised one order worth about Rs 600 crore.

Jubilant Foodworks shares rallied 5 percent after global research firm PhillipCapital raised price target of the stock to Rs 1,845 from Rs 1,760 earlier, implying 43.4 percent potential upside from Tuesday's closing.

Capital First and IDFC Bank shares rallied 4 percent after both companies announced completion of their merger on Tuesday.

Shares of Indiabulls Real Estate (IBRE) jumped 8 percent after the board approved a scheme of arrangement to facilitate divestment of assets in Chennai to the US-based Blackstone Group.

Global Markets

European stocks were higher as fall in crude oil prices led to speculation that US Fed may be done with tightening cycle. Stoxx 600 edged up around 0.2 percent during early morning deals.

Asian stocks were mixed ahead of US Federal reserve’s FOMC meeting.

In the broader Japanese market, the Nikkei 225 finished the day 0.6 percent to 20,987.92 and the Topix closed 0.41 percent down to 1,556.15.

The Shanghai composite ended the day 1.05 percent lower at 2,549.5634 and the Shenzhen composite fell by 1.376 percent at the close to 1,294.4853. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 0.12 percent higher.