News Hour- Nifty ends above 5,200; realty, banks, metals gain

MUMBAI: The Nifty ended the truncated session on a positive note, above 5,200, on low volumes. The special trading session today was held since the NSE was upgrading its futures and options trading system, as reported. The daily mark to market settlement for futures and the premium settlement for options for trades done in the F&O segment will take place on Monday, 30 April 2012. 

The Nifty ended at 5,209, up 18.40 points, or 0.35 percent. It touched an intraday high of 5,216.40 and a low of 5,196.35. 

The Sensex closed at 17,209.47, up 75.22 points, or 0.44 percent. It touched an intraday high of 17,212.36 and a low of 17,125.88. 

The Nifty has been moving in a narrow range for the past few sessions in the absence of participation of foreign institutional investors, analysts said. 

"Sentiment is weak and even the FII flows have been sluggish. Without a turnaround in the FII flows, the markets may continue to drift sideways. At this juncture, we recommend a stock-specific strategy rather than sector-specific. 

Our advice to retail investors would be to accumulate stocks of strong businesses as these stocks will emerge stronger once economic growth revives," said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President, Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities. 

The BSE Midcap Index was up 0.64 percent and the Smallcap Index gained 0.58 percent. 

Among sectoral indices, the BSE Realty Index was up 1.19 percent, the BSE Bankex advanced 0.94 percent, the BSE Metal Index gained 0.85 percent and the BSE Auto Index was up 0.71 percent. 

Sterlite Industries (1.73%), Axis Bank (1.73%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (1.53%), Jindal Steel (1.28%) and Sesa Goa (1.23%) were among the top Nifty gainers. 

Axis Bank reported a standalone net profit of Rs 1,277.27 crore for the quarter ended March 2012. Interest earned stood to Rs 6,060.32 crore for the quarter. 

Jindal Steel & Power posted a standalone net profit of Rs 2,110.65 crore for the year ended March 2012 against Rs 2,064.12 crore a year ago. Net sales rose to Rs 13,270.67 crore for the year against Rs 9,534.89 crore last fiscal. 

Shares of fertiliser companies were in the limelight. Rashtriya Chemicals surged 8.59 percent, National Fertilisers rallied 15.25 percent, Chambal Fertilisers gained 4.79 percent and Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore rose 7.86 percent. 

Siemens (0.93%), Grasim (0.42%), Kotak Bank (0.35%), HCL Tech (0.29%) and Reliance Industries (0.21%) were the losers.
(Source- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com)