The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex gave up the huge early gains today to
heavy profit booking towards the fag end and settled with muted gains of just 45 points.
The Sensex, tracking Asian indices which rallied today, had a rocking opening pushing up the index 230 points higher on all round buying, but could not sustain the lead and closed with a gain of just 45.42 points at 16,237.05.
The index touched a high of 16,423.23 points mid-day following President Pratibha Patil upped GDP growth to nine per cent for 2012, which in turn raised hopes that public spending would continue in the coming years and the Budget would not a big dampener.
Over the past two sessions alone, the Sensex had shed 238 points or nearly 1.5 per cent.
The wide-based NSE Nifty 50 too shaved off the huge gains in the morning half and closed with paltry 11.50 points gains to 4,856.40. After opening 67 points higher, the index touched the day's high of 4,912.05 on all round buying.
Among the 30 Sensex stocks, 18 closed higher and others ended in the red. The early rally was led by metals and IT.
The day's biggest gainer was the IT sector which rose 1.01 per cent, followed by metal sector by 0.68 per cent. Infosys rose Rs 38.70 to Rs 2,568.25. TCS gained Rs 5.50 to Rs 756.30 and Wipro by Rs 1.55 to Rs 667.55.
In the metal sector, Tata Steel rallied Rs 9.45 to Rs 572, Hindalco rose Rs 3.90 to Rs 153.65.
However, a steep fall in realty, consumer durables, healthcare, PSUs, refinery, power and FMCG sectors capped the gains.
Markets @ 09.40 AM (Reuters)
The BSE Sensex joined Asia's rally on Monday, with software companies leading the gains, as investors took the U.S. Federal Reserve's discount rate hike last week as a sign the world's largest economy was recovering.
By 9:37 a.m. (0407 GMT), the 30-share BSE Index was up 1.26 percent at 16,395.62, with all of its components trading in the green.
Export-focused outsourcers gained on improving prospects in the United States, one of their largest markets, dealers said.
Infosys Technologies was up 2.1 percent while Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro both gained 1.5 percent.
Data from Nomura showed foreign funds preferred Indian equities in the Asian region in the week to Feb. 19.
"We rose as global markets are firm. But, I doubt if we can sustain all the gains. We should close in the positive, but not at these levels." said R. Ganesh, director of Systematix Shares.
"The reason for the bounce is short-covering. There is no urgency to buy from investors. It is like any other day," he added.
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday made its first interest rate move since December 2008, hiking an emergency lending rate it charges banks, but insisted borrowing costs would not rise for consumers or companies.
The central bank's view of the economy has brightened in recent months as job losses eased, consumer spending strengthened and businesses stepped up purchases of equipment and software.
Ganesh expected trade to be cautious this week ahead of India's federal budget on Friday and the expiration of monthly derivatives contracts on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Reliance Industries rose 0.8 percent on a media report the energy major has raised its offer for U.S.-based petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell to about $14.5 billion.
Angel Securities said the revised bid by Reliance would improved its prospects for the acquisition of the petrochemicals maker. The Mumbai-based brokerage maintained a "buy" on Reliance, with a target price of 1,260 rupees.
Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel gained 0.9 percent to 280.75 rupees after a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Sunday that telecoms firm Zain and the Indian firm are expected to sign a letter of intent for the $9 billion African assets deal this week.
Separately, the Economic Times reported Bharti Airtel has lined up $9 billion in loans from foreign and local banks for its planned acquisition.
In the broader market, gainers were nearly thrice the number of losers in volume of 40 million shares.
The 50-share NSE index was up 1.2 percent at 4,902.45.
