Led by gains in metals, banks and oil&gas stocks, Indian equities ended on a buoyant note on Friday ahead of Diwali. ( Watch ) The indices opened up and moved higher despite choppy Asian markets as sentiments were bullish ahead of the festival of lights. Second rung stocks were sought most in today’s trade. “Majors like RIL, SBI and DLF held the fort while rest of the market was consolidating. Going forward, a lot depends on RIL-RNRL court verdict and global cues. There are rumours that both Ambani brothers would reach an out-of-court settlement. RIL has been lagging behind and any good news can propel the stock and consequently the market higher,” said Nehal Shah, research analyst, Ventura Securities. Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended the day at 17322.82, up 127.62 points or 0.74 per cent from the previous day’s close. The 30-share index hit a high of 17347.85 and low of 17126.55 intraday. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty settled at 5142.15, up 33.30 points or 0.65 per cent. The index touched an intra-day high of 5149.65 and low of 5093.20. The BSE Midcap Index was up 1.06 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index gained 0.48 per cent. Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Realty Index gained 3.36 per cent, BSE Bankex jumped 2.29 per cent and BSE Oil&gas Index gained 1.19 per cent. DLF (6.30%), State Bank of India (5.30%), Jaiprakash Associates (3.41%), Tata Power (3.39%), TCS (2.84%) and RIL (2.08%) were the top Sensex gainers. Losers were Sterlite Industries (-5.44%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-2.28%), Tata Steel (-1.44%), ITC (-1.43%) and ACC (-1.29%). Shares of Sterlite Industries fell after the company said it raised $500 million in convertible senior notes and plans to use the proceeds for expansion of copper business. These notes are convertible into American depositary shares at $23.33 per share and carry a coupon of 4 per cent. Market breadth on BSE showed 1,506 advances against 1,264 declines.

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sensex

The one-sided win for the UPA government (lead by 262 seats) in the 15th Lok Sabha election, which shrugged off the exit polls results drastically, brought great cheers for the markets in early trade. The benchmark indices locked at upper circuit. The BSE and NSE have decided that the trade will start at 11:55 am (i.e. after two-hour halt).

In the first 30 seconds of trade, the Sensex crossed the 13,000 mark and inched up towards 14,000 level. This was the first time since October 2008 that the Sensex surpassed the 13,000 mark and the Nifty crossed the 4000 level. Huge upsurge of 420 points or 11.4% in the SGX Nifty was suggesting the same trend.

The 50-share NSE Nifty was up 531.65 points or 14.48% at 4,203.30 and the 30-share BSE Sensex surged 1,789.88 points or 14.70% to 13,963.30. Less than Rs 1000 crore of trade was seen in the cash and F&O segment.

What is a circuit breaker?

It is a system to curb excessive speculation in the stock market, applied by the stock exchange authorities, when the index spurts or plunges by more than a fixed limit. Trading is then suspended for some time to let the market cool down. If the market changes more than 10%, trading is halted for one hour, more than 15% trading is suspended for 2 hours. Although introduced in November 1992, it was used for the first time in the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday, 9 March 1993 when the Sensex declined by more than 5% from the opening level, i.e. from 2451.20 to 2318.26. At that time, the circuit was 5%.

Lok Sabha 2009 election results

The Lok Sabha 2009 election results have given a clear mandate: the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is set to return to power and without support of the Left.

The UPA raced to an early lead ahead of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Incumbent Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is now set to continue in the role.

The Indian rupee was trading at 4-month high of 48.40 a US dollar.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower barring Taiwan. Nikkei declined 2.5%. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Kospi fell 1.3% each. Straits Times was down 0.79%. However, Taiwan Weighted lost 0.7%.

The dollar fell 0.5 percent to 94.75 yen, nearing a two-month low of 94.55. The shares of export companies are under presssure as a result of strong yen.

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