Closing Market Update: 18th April, 2013

The Indian benchmarks ended on a strongly positive note on April 18, 2013. After opening flat, they moved up consistently scaling new highs every hour. the narrowing of March trade deficit to a two-year low of USD 10.3 billion helped sustain the positive sentiment created by a decline in gold and crude oil prices. Falling commodity prices are a big positive for India and this could even prompt many foreign investors to increase their weightage for the country in their portfolio. All these led the Sensex to close at the level of 19016.46 i.e. up by 285.30 points and the Nifty to close at the level of 5786.10 i.e. up by 94.40 points. The midcap index and the small cap index closed in green with the gain of three-forth of a percentage point and six-tens of a percentage point respectively. On the sectoral front, all the indicies, except one closed in green. Consumer Durables Index was the biggest gainer with the gain of slightly more than two and a three-forth of a percentage point. This was followed by Capital Goods Index which closed with the gain of two and two-third of a percentage point. On the other hand IT Index closed as the only looser with the loss of slightly less than one-third of a percentage point.

Further, the market breadth closed neutral as one stock was seen advancing against each declining stock.