Markets End Day In Green, IT Leads Gains

The Indian markets held their morning gains for the entire trading day, with the two broader indices closing higher by around 0.75%. This may have been on the back of speculations that the US Fed could take some steps to boost growth in the economy, which is showing signs of moderating. Among the sectoral indices, IT and Teck moved higher by more than 2% each. On the other hand, FMCG and Consumer durables closed the day lower by 0.27% and 0.69% respectively.

The peer Asian markets closed in a mixed bag on the back of speculations that the corporate earnings will beat the street estimates, coupled with improved confidence among the South Korean manufacturers. There are also speculations that Australia’s central bank will cut the interest rates in its meet tomorrow. Hang Seng closed the day 1.7% higher, while Shanghai closed 0.35% lower. The Nikkei market remained closed for holidays today.

The European markets have given up their initial morning gains, and are trading lower. FTSE and CAC are both trading in the negative territory, while DAX is marginally in the green zone. The markets looked nervous as they awaited the US consumer spending report, which will give further cues on how the world’s largest economy is growing.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 10 points or 0.07% down at 13154, indicating a neutral-to-negative sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, investors saw some buying opportunity in IT stocks, which were the leading index gainers after being beaten down heavily in the past few trading sessions. This was coupled with the effects of a weakening rupee. TCS and Infosys closed the day higher by 3.49% and 2.75% respectively. The stocks of DLF also held its morning gains and closed the day up 2.61% at Rs 186.90. ICICI Bank continued its uptrend from the last trading session, as the bank posted robust financial numbers. The stock price closed 1.44% higher at Rs 881.45. GAIL India, Tata Steel, SBI and Coal India are some of the stocks that closed the day marginally in the green zone.

On the other hand, Auto majors Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra closed lower by 1.95% and 0.64%. BHEL closed 1.94% down to Rs 224.90 after an order worth around Rs 12000 crore was terminated by the Rajasthan government. Other stocks like NTPC, HUL, HDFC Bank, etc. closed marginally in the red zone.

Bank of India is trading 4.59% higher at Rs 352.85 after reporting robust Mar 2012 quarter numbers. Its net profit increased by 93% to Rs 953 crore on a YoY basis. Godrej Consumer Products has made a new high, and is trading 2.5% up at Rs 539.75. This was after its Mar 2012 quarter consolidated profit grew by 36% to Rs 193 crore on the back of strong topline growth.

Investors should watch out for stocks like Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Foods, Artson Engineering, Maplle Infra, etc., which are due to post their Mar quarter results. These stocks may see a price movement.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was positive for the day. Out of the 3187 stocks traded on the BSE, 1703 advanced, 1368 declined and 116 remained unchanged.

The markets will remain closed for tomorrow to mark Labour Day. For the following day, we expect the markets to remain volatile, as investors are jittery in this uncertain environment. We advise our readers to play with caution.