Indices close with marginal gains

20 May 2005

The market opened firm on the back of positive global cues as US markets remained firm yesterday and oil declined further. The indices were held firm by oil marketing companies, Infosys and SBI.

Weakness in SBI before announcement of its results pulled the indices down. Tata Motors, Tata Steel and SAIL trended lower and added to the weakness. Markets were trading at their lows of the day before noon.

Better than expected results from SBI helped the markets to recover. Renewed buying in oil marketing companies, Infosys and ICICI Bank helped the indices to close marginally in the positive.

Sensex closed at 6499, up 20 points and the Nifty at 1993, up 2 points. Nifty May futures discount to the spot index narrowed to 6 points from yesterday's 14 points.

Among Nifty stocks, L&T, Infosys and HPCL were the major percentage gainers while Zee Tele, SAIL and Cipla were the major losers.

US markets continued its rally yesterday and closed with gains for the fourth consecutive day. NASDAQ gained over half a per cent while gains at Dow were lower.

Yesterday, Indian ADR's gave up part of their gains from the previous day. Tata Motors, Wipro and ICICI Bank were the major losers. Infosys, HDFC Bank and VSNL also closed with losses. Satyam and MTNL gained well over a per cent each.

Inflation for the week ended 07 May declined to 5.61 per cent from 5.67 per cent reported for the previous week.