Thursday February 14, 03:30 PM
Upbeat mood continues... |
|
By Equitymaster.com
Markets continue to strengthen on the back of positive news on the economy front. While the government has stepped on the divestment pedal, agricultural output is expected to be on the higher side. PSU stocks, once again, closed higher. Banking stocks are saw significant buying interest.
The BSE Sensex closed at 3,564 (up 44 points) and the NSE Nifty closed at 1,151 (up 16 points). The rupee was trading at Rs 48.70 per US dollar.
Most of the public sector companies closed higher. While the top gainer was ONGC (up 12%), MTNL (MTNL.BO, news) , Gas Authority, BHEL (BHEL.BO, news) and IPCL were also up sharply. With the government's decision to sell four PSUs and Maruti by the end of the current fiscal, PSUs are attracting buying frenzy.
Rabi output for the current fiscal is expected to increase by 20%. Though Rabi crop was expected to fair well, an unexpected rainfall in some Northern states is expected to result in higher output. Consequently, rural demand, which has been lacklustre, could improve. Select stocks from cement and consumer durables sectors were up.
Banking and financial institutions stocks have been buzzing with activity off late. Though credit offtake has remained subdued, a possible rise in FII limit and expectations of various tax sops in the forthcoming budget seems to have enthused markets. While ICICI and ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO, news) were up 10%, HDFC, IDBI (IDBI.BO, news) , Kotak Mahindra and IFCI also gained significantly. The government is also expected to take firm decision on divestment of PSU banks in the coming fiscal, which has resulted in continued buying interest in these companies.
The key losers today were FMCG stocks like HLL, Dabur, Asian Paints, Tata Tea (TTTE.BO, news) , Gillette, Godrej Consumers, Marico and Reckitt. P&G, Colgate (COLGd.BO, news) , Pidilite, Nirma (NRMA.BO, news) , Britannia, ITC (ITCd.BO, news) and Trent (TREN.BO, news) , on the other hand, were up. But given the eminent recovery in rural demand, rally in these stocks cannot be ruled out.
Software stocks also witnessed buying interest towards the end of the day. Infosys, Wipro (WIPRd.BO, news) , CMC, HCL Infosys (HCLId.BO, news) and VisualSoft (VISO.BO, news) were the key gainers.
|
