It was a rangebound session for the benchmark indices. But the broader indices staged stunning performance; they continued their uptrend for the eighth consecutive session, which kept the market breadth at 7:1 on the NSE.

The 50-share NSE Nifty shed 0.95 points or 0.02%, to close at 4,237.55, after seeing a swing of 64.95 points between an intraday high of 4,270.05 and low of 4,205.10. However, the 30-share BSE Sensex swung 208.81 points between day's high/low of 14,028.06 and 13,819.25, before closing the day at 13,913.22, up 0.19% or 26.07 points.

The broader indices continued to outperform the benchmark indices. The BSE Midcap Index gained 2.83% or 134.47 points, to close at 4,890.15 and the Smallcap Index rose 5.01% or 276.27 points, to settle at 5,789.43. Both the indices shot up 30.70% and 37.18% in eight sessions, respectively.

The market breadth was very strong; about 2533 shares advanced while 344 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 249 shares remained unchanged.

Bharti and Ranbaxy Labs along with the realty stocks were in focus today. Bharti Airtel lost 5.73%, post the announcement of likely deal between the company and South Africa's MTN; wherein Bharti may buy 49% stake in MTN and in turn MTN and its shareholders may acquire 36% economic interest in Bharti. The stock jumped over 5% in the initial trade today.

However, Ranbaxy Labs shot up 20.73%, as Atul Sobti, the current Chief Operating Officer will take over as the Chief Executive Officer of the company for a three-year term. Meanwhile, Malvinder Singh, the company's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer has stepped down and will now be the new Chairman of the board.

Huge buying interest was seen in realty stocks today, as the companies are looking for raising funds via QIP (qualified institutional placement) issue post the strong response received by Unitech and Indiabulls Real Estate's QIPs.

HDIL (Housing Development and Infrastructure) approved the raising of USD 600 million via QIP on Saturday. Today, Puravankara Projects and Parsvnath Developers' boards approved plans to raise up to Rs 750 crore and Rs 2,500 crore via QIP issues, respectively.

Parsvnath and Ansal Properties gained 10% each. Unitech was up 8.28% and DLF rose 5.42%. Omaxe, Orbit Corporation, Akruti City, Anant Raj Industries, Puravankara Projects, Peninsula Land and Phoenix Mills gained 3-6%. The BSE Realty Index surged 4.25% or 140.65 points, to 3,451.44.

Sectoral Indices

Among the midcap stocks, Jaiprakash Hydro, Godfrey Phillip and United Breweries gained 20% each. Era Infra Engg, MRF, Kirloskar Oil and Patni Computer were up 15-19.7%.

In the smallcap space, Vishal Info, Balkrishna Industries, Indian Metals, Cranes Software, Oscar Investment, Ugar Sugar Work and NOCIL shot up 20% each.

Volumes were lower compared to previous session; total traded turnover was at Rs 91,258.73 crore. This included Rs 18,806.88 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 65,151.03 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 7,300.82 crore from BSE cash segment.

Global cues

At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading lower. The CAC was down 18 points, to 3,209 and the DAX fell 46 points, to 4,872. The FTSE was shut today.

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones futures fell 29 points, to 8,231 and the Nasdaq futures fell 2 points, to 1,358.75.  

Asian markets ended higher. Nikkei gained 1.31% and Straits Times was up 0.99%. Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were up 0.35-0.48%. However, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were flat.