Nifty ends above 4500; Realty, Banks up 6.5 per cent, Auto up 4 per cent

05 August 2008

Markets witnessed sharp rally in second half of session and closed near days high. Strong value buying was seen in rate sensitives and infrastructure stocks, which lift broader indices up. Spectacular upmove in European markets and fall in crude oil price sprinkled positive feelings among investors.

Frontline indices shrugged off volatility. Sensex was inching towards 15000 mark but could not able to hit that level while Nifty touched 4500. It closed at 14,961.07, up 383.20 points or 2.63% after hitting an intraday high of 14,986.63 and low of 14,529.21. Nifty finished with a gain of 107.5 points or 2.45% at 4,502.85. It hit a high/low of 4515.15 and 4376.

Crude Futures hit a low of USD 118/bbl, a lowest level since May 5. It was trading at USD 119.38 a barrel on the NYMEX, at the time of writing market report. Jason Feer, Vice President and Singapore Bureau Chief of Argus Media feels that the crude demand growth from India, China is likely to plateau in the near-term. He also expects crude prices to be softer than H1CY08.

Most beaten down sectors saw huge value buying interest in todays trade. Rate sensitives like banking, auto and realty stocks gained smartly followed by infrastructure stocks like capital goods and power.

Amongst frontliners, HCL Tech shot up by 9.19%, ICICI Bank 8.24%, DLF 7.66%, Unitech 7.64%, Maruti Suzuki 7.38%, HDFC Bank 6.83% and Grasim 6.56%. However, Sterlite Ind lost 6.76%, Cairn India -4.14%, Tata Steel -2.28%, Tata Power -1.61% and Ranbaxy Labs -1.52%.

Banking stocks were biggest performers of the day. Bankex rose 450.37 points or 6.65% to settle at 7,217.98. IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank, Karnataka Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of India and Union Bank gained 6-9%.