Sensex ends up 505 pts, Nifty ends at 8191; autos surge

Moneycontrol Bureau

03:30pm Market closes: After a stellar rally,  the Sensex ended up 506.28 points or 1.9 percent at 27105.39. The Nifty was up 134.20 points or 1.7 percent at 8191.50.  About 1865 shares have advanced, 835 shares declined, and 169 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Cipla, ICICI Bank, Hindalco and HUL were top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers were Hero MotoCorp, ONGC, TCS, NTPC and Vedanta.

02:45pm HUL surges: Hindustan Unilever (HUL) matched street estimates with the fourth quarter profit rising 16.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,018 crore compared to Rs 872 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income from operations grew by 8.2 percent to Rs 7,675 crore during January-March quarter against Rs 7,094 crore in the same quarter last year with volume growth of 6 percent. 4-7 percent

Profit was estimated at Rs 958 crore on revenue of Rs 7,643 crore for the quarter, according to a CNBC-TV18 poll.

02:15pm Rupee outlook: Rupee recovered by 22 paise to 64.01 against the greenback today led by an increase in dollar selling by exporters and banks. The Indian currency slipped below the 64-mark to end at a 20-month low of 64.23, depreciating 69 paise against the dollar Thursday due to foreign investors pulling out money from India amid concerns over MAT and delay in the passage of key reform bills.

Ashutosh Khajuria, President – Treasury, Federal Bank said anything above 63.91 would have established dollar strength over rupee. According to him, 63.90 must form the base for the rupee now.

He expects the currency to trade in 63.90-64.50 range against the dollar.

02:00pm Market Check

The market has maintained its strong uptrend in afternoon trade following positive global cues, tracking results of UK polls. Short covering post heavy sell-off in previous sessions also supported the market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 512.99 points or 1.93 percent to 27112.10 and the Nifty rallied 145.10 points or 1.80 percent to 8202.40 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained more than 1.5 percent.

About 1780 shares have advanced, 719 shares declined, and 164 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In UK, David Cameron-led Conservative Party is set to win elections with 318 seats (out of 633 seats). Britain's FTSE gained 1.5 percent while France's CAC and Germany's DAX advanced 0.5 percent. In Asia, Shanghai and Hang Seng added 2.3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

ICICI Bank, HDFC and Tata Motors are the biggest contributors to Sensex's gains, up 4-5 percent. Tata Motors's rally was led by Jaguar Land Rover's UK sales growth in April that increased by 20 percent.

Among others, Cipla climbed nearly 5 percent followed by HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, L&T, Axis Bank, M&M, Dr Reddy's Labs and Bajaj Auto with 2-3 percent rally. However, Hero Motocorp fell 2.5 percent on disappointing set of earnings in Q4 yesterday.