Nifty closes higher; NTPC, Hero Honda, SBI, Infy lead
30 Apr 2010
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,558.71, up 55.24 points or 0.32% and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 23.85 points or 0.45% to settle at 5278.
Power, technology (barring Wipro), auto (barring Maruti), oil & gas, banking, realty and select pharma companies' shares witnessed buying interest today. However, the sell-off in Wipro, SAIL, Tata Steel, HDFC, ITC, Ambuja Cements, BHEL, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, Reliance Communications, Maruti, Reliance Power, ABB and Idea Cellular limited the gains to major extent. Even Reliance Industries also added some pressure in the last couple of hours of trade, which closed flat.
BPCL was the top gainer on the Nifty, which shot up 5.3%. Among other oil & gas stocks, GAIL was up 3%, Cairn India up 2% and ONGC up 0.76%.
NTPC from the power space was the leading contributor, gained over 2%. Reliance Infrastructure and Suzlon Energy went up 1-1.6% while Power Grid, Reliance Power and Tata Power fell 0.2-0.6%.
The benchmark Nifty remained positive for the second consecutive session after Wednesday's sell-off. This may be on the back of short covering and positive global cues, which eased after IMF promised to increase the Euro 45 billion aid package for Greece to as much as Euro 120 billion over three years.
Asian markets closed positive; Hang Seng, Jakarta and Nikkei gained 1.2-1.6%. Straits Times and Kospi were up 0.5-0.8%. Shanghai also turned into green while Taiwan fell 0.6%. The US markets closed 1-1.6% higher on Thursday and all markets were eyeing US Q1 GDP data..
