Markets End in Green

Jittery from an ouster of German Chancellor Angela-Merkel's conservatives in a key state election, the euro dropped further from Friday's levels, while an increasing nuclear contamination threat in Japan, around the ill-fated Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, heightened investor averseness to riskier assets. As Asian stocks fell, the domestic markets opened on a soft note, with IT stocks weighing down on the bourses, after two consecutive sessions of gains the previous week. Shrugging off weak Asian cues, the domestic markets logged gains for the sixth consecutive day, as the Sensex closed up 128 points at 18,943, while the Nifty ended at 5,687 up 33 points. In the late noon trades, the markets were trading off the day's high, with the Sensex at 18,976 up 160 points, while the Nifty was at 5,692 up 37 points. The noon session was marked by choppiness, with the derivatives expiry, due on Thursday, along with a year-end reshuffling of positions also implying a volatile element to the markets. Auto stocks were in top gear today, and the index gained nearly 2% at 8,982. Amongst the top gainers, Tata Motors led the pack, followed by Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,202 up 2% and Cummins India at Rs 662 up a little over 1%. Apollo Tyres, Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland and Hero Honda also gained between 0.7% to 1% each. The Capital Goods index closed up a little over 1% at 13,184, with L&T leading the gains up nearly 3%. Alstom Projects was at Rs 570 up 2%, while Praj Industries gained slightly over 1% at Rs 74, followed by ABB, Punj Lloyd and BGR Energy all up 1%.