Day Ends In Nominal Gains, Metal & Auto Up 1.5%

The Indian markets saw selling at the opening, recovered all their losses in the early noon trade, and finally closed with nominal gains. The Nifty was up by 27 points at 5971 and Sensex closed 98 points higher at 19,670. Both the indices ended the day with gains of 0.46%-0.51%.

The advance-decline ratio ended on the positive side. On the NSE, 789 shares closed in gains and 552 shares were in losses.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Hindalco ended up by 3.7% as the top gainer on the NSE, followed by Tata Steel, TCS, Asian Paints and NMDC.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Kotak Mahindra finished down by 1.6%. ONGC, Ambuja Cements, ITC and NTPC also remained in the red zone.

Among the sectoral indices, only FMCG and PSU were in the red zone, down by 50 points and 16 points respectively. Metal was the top gainer, up by 173 points and Auto and Consumer Durables closed 150 points and 112 points higher respectively. The Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices also ended in the green.

Most of the Asian markets closed flat, positive, with only Japan’s Nikkei down by 105 points. Hang Seng gained 225 points, while China’s Shanghai Composite closed higher by 25 points and KOSPI remained flat.

Buzzers: The shares of metal companies rallied after copper gained more than 6% on Friday, May 3. After the morning session, Hindalco made a new high of Rs 102.15 and managed to close around Rs 101.70. From here, the stock has a hurdle of Rs 105. If it closes above this level, it could see a further up-move.

Ambuja Cements disappointed the market with its first quarter earnings on Friday, May 6. The stock has continued in the red zone and was down 1.4%, closing below the Rs 190 level. It broke its support level in the closing session today. The stock has good support at the Rs 184 level, and may see a further down-move if it closes below this level.

The Nifty managed to close above the 5940 level but faces stiff resistance around 5980. If the index sustains below this level, it may go down further.