Nifty Touches 6000 Mark, IT Shines

The Indian markets continue to trade firm in the last hour of trade, with Nifty ending the trading session near the highest level since February 4 on the back of significant buying witnessed in IT, Realty and Bankex. Traders are now focused on the RBI’s monetary policy tomorrow (May 3). At the end of the day, Nifty closed up by 69 points at 5999.35 and Sensex was 229 points higher at 19,733. Both indices closed up in the range of 1.17%-1.18%.

The market breadth was in the positive zone. On the NSE, 774 shares have advanced and 530 shares have declined.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Tata Consultancy Services emerged as the top gainer on the NSE, closing up by 4.03%, followed by Reliance Infrastructure, Mahindra & Mahindra, Jaiprakash Associates and L&T.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Hindustan Unilever ended lower by 2.05%. Cairn India, Hero MotoCorp, Hindalco Industries and GAIL were among the others that finished lower.

12 out of the 13 sectoral indices ended positive. IT, TECk, Realty and Capital Goods closed firm. Metal was the lone sector that ended in the negative zone.

The Asian markets ended mixed. Nikkei 225 closed down by 0.77%, followed by Kospi and Hang Seng. Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted scale up by 0.43%-1.01%.

The European markets are trading on a mixed note. DAX is in positives, while CAC 40 and FTSE are trading lower in the range of 0.14%-0.24%.

Buzzers: Syndicate Bank surged more than 6% to Rs 128. This was following the announcement of a higher-than-expected 92% YoY jump in net profits to Rs 592 crore for the quarter ended March 2013 due to lower provisioning for bad loans and tax expenses. In the previous year same quarter, the state-owned bank had logged a profit of Rs 309 crore.

Aurobindo Pharma’s stock surged by as much as 4.48% to Rs 199.45 on reports that the company has obtained manufacturing approval from the US FDA for Quinapril tablets USP 5 mg, 10 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg.

The Nifty closed near the 6000 mark for the day. Now, the RBI policy will be eyed by investors and traders. If the policy is favourable (i.e. if a rate cut comes in), the index may touch the levels of 6060-6100 in the short term.