Markets close off day's high; Auto, CG, realty surge

30 December 2008

The markets closed with good gains but off the day's high. It appears profit booking was seen at higher levels. The indices started the day with some choppiness but in the afternoon session, saw a good bounceback. All BSE sectoral indices closed in green. The BSE Auto index outperformed other sectoral indices - it was up over 3%. Strong buying interest was also seen in capital goods, realty, IT, power and banking stocks. The BSE Midcap and Small Cap indices were up 2.18% and 1.79% respectively.

The Sensex closed up 182.64 points or 1.92% at 9716.16. It has touched an intra day high of 9,785.04 and an intra day low of 9,494.70.

The Nifty was up 57.30 points or 1.96% at 2979.50. It has touched an intra day high of 2999.15 and an intra day low of 2899.75.

Market breadth was positive, about 1754 shares have advanced, 998 shares declined, and 451 shares are unchanged.

Rahul Shah, Head-PCG, MF Global, said he would only be able to speculate how the markets would react to bad earnings in January. "If the markets remain resilient and hold ground in January, we would look at the market with a long-term perspective." He sees further bad news percolating into markets in the next 5-6 months.

Seshadri Sen of Macquarie Research sees mild economic recovery in H2CY09 on low inflation, rates, better liquidity. He advises to shift from expensive defensives to cheaper cyclicals. He is mildly positive on the markets over 12 months and feels that the major fall may be over. "2009 will be a flat year with individual sectors, stocks doing well. Top 2009 picks are banks, select construction, cement and auto stocks"