Sensex rises for 6th day, Nifty above 8200, up 3% in week

Moneycontrol Bureau

Equity benchmarks rallied for the sixth consecutive session Friday with the Nifty effortlessly conquering the 8200-mark, supported by banking & financials, oil and select auto stocks. Good monsoon start and upmove in global markets kept the investor mood positive.

However, volumes are very low today on the back of heavy rainfalls in Mumbai, leaving many dealing rooms deserted.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 200.34 points or 0.74 percent to 27316.17 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 50.35 points or 0.62 percent to 8224.95.

Pratik Gupta of Deutsche Securities believes the India story remains intact and he remains constructive in long term, though he scaled down December 2015 Sensex target to 31000.

The broader markets underperformed benchmarks. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.6 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. About 1432 shares advanced against 1234 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The rupee also gained further today, rising to 63.55 a dollar at close, up 18 paise compared to 63.73 a dollar in previous session.

For the week, the Sensex surged 3.4 percent and the Nifty rallied 3 percent while CNX Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices gained 3.5 percent each. Auto, Oil & Gas and Pharma indices climbed 4.5-5 percent. Short covering, deferral of rate hike by Federal Reserve, stable macro-economic data and good monsoon start were the key reason for this weekly rally.

Globally markets except China were strong today following upside on Wall Street last night. In Asia, Shanghai Composite index plunged 6.4 percent today, suffering biggest weekly drop (9 percent) in seven years. The slide was sparked by fresh tightening moves on margin lending by China securities regulatory commission as well as a deluge of IPOs that pose a threat to market liquidity.

In Europe, France’s CAC and DAX were up more than 1.2 percent while Britain’s FTSE gained 0.5 percent (at 16 hours IST), shrugging off Greek woes. Euro leaders will meet for an emergency summit on Monday to try to thrash out a last minute deal with Greece.

Back home, the Mumbai city hit today after incessant rainfall for the last 30 hours led to waterlogging. From Thursday, Mumbai has received a whopping 283 mm of rain, which pushed the total rainfall received in the month of June to 537 mm, more than the monthly average of 523 mm.

Stocks in Action

Utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra was the biggest gainer on Sensex, up 4.5 percent followed by further gains in major bluechips like Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, ONGC and Maruti Suzuki with 1-3 percent rally. However, Tata Motors lost 2.8 percent.

In the broader space, Sun TV Network surged 8 percent as the attorney general said home ministry's stance on denying security clearance to the Sun is incorrect. Final decision on the matter will be taken by the government.

Natco Pharma spiked 6 percent after the US Court invalidated Teva's 808 Copaxone patent. This may help other pharma companies for generic launches of top-selling multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone. Natco is waiting for approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) to launch the product.