Moneycontrol Bureau
Equity benchmarks closed marginally higher with the Nifty clawing back above the 8200 level on Friday, the first day of January series, supported by index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 33.17 points to 27241.78 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 26.60 points to 8200.70 amid low volumes. The BSE Midcap Index gained 0.4 percent. Advance:decline ratio on the Bombay Stock Exchange was 1:1.
Experts believe the market may remain in a range in near term but it may see new highs around the Budget time.
The market is unlikely to fall much ahead of the Budget (that will be keenly watched by FIIs than domestic investors), says UR Bhatt of Dalton Capital Advisors. According to him, 7900 is a strong support level for the Nifty.
Meanwhile, Rahul Arora, CEO, Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities says the house has a positive outlook for 2015 and sees Nifty around 9500 plus/minus 5 percent by Diwali next year backed by strong fundamentals.P Phani Sekhar of Angel Broking believes financials will continue to do well. According to him, a couple of bank-related issues have been resolved which will help banks in improving their asset quality going ahead. For the week, the Sensex was down 0.5 percent and the Nifty fell 0.3 percent weighed by capital goods, technology and oil & gas stocks.
Shares of DLF was the top gainer on Nifty, up 3.46 percent followed by Jindal Steel, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, HDFC, Sesa Sterlite and TCS with 1-2 percent gains.
Reliance Industries bounced back again in late trade, up 0.25 percent. Media report suggested that the company signed shipping deal with Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines for importing ethane from US. State-run Power Grid Corporation gained 0.7 percent on reports that the company may get transmission projects worth Rs 36000 crore.
According to media reports, India’s biggest lender State Bank of India said it will start talks with life insurance partner BNP Paribas on BNP increasing stake in JV. The stock gained 0.6 percent.
Bharti Airtel was in focus today as the telecom operator decided to charge higher tarriff for voice over internet protocol (VoIP). Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government will look into it and come back with a structured response. The stock closed flat.
However, auto stocks like Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp declined 0.4-1.3 percent ahead of December sales numbers. Shares of ITC, ICICI Bank, HUL, BHEL and Cipla fell 0.5-1 percent.
In the broader space, SpiceJet rallied 9 percent ahead of revival plan submission to government. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that Ajay Singh, the former promoter of the airline company, is in talks with 2 PE investors to raise USD 200 million.
3i Infotech was locked at 20 percent upper circuit after JP Morgan Chase on Tuesday raised stake in the company to 9.52 percent from 5.72 percent.
Jindal Stainless shot up 13 percent ahead of meeting on Monday, wherein the board of directors will consider and approve a scheme on asset monetization and business reorganization plan of the company.
Reliance Capital gained 0.3 percent on strategic alliance with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank of Japan (Japan’s fourth largest bank). Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank will take initial 2.77 percent stake in Reliance Capital.
Disclosure: Reliance Industries has acquired management control of Network18, which owns TV18 Broadcast and moneycontrol.com.
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