Backed by a wave of reforms announced over the weekend, the Indian markets ended the September 17 trading session in the positive. The markets opened on a firm note after the government, after market hours on Friday, 14 September 2012, announced liberalization of foreign investment rules in retail, aviation and broadcasting sectors. However, the early morning gains did not last too long as the markets witnessed volatility after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the key rates unchanged in its mid-quarter monetary policy review. Globally too market sentiments remained subdued, the Asian markets ended on a mixed note while the European markets were trading lower. Markets breadth was positive as on the BSE 1,628 shares advanced while 1,262 shares declined.
The BSE Sensex touched a high of 18,715 and a low of 18,480 before it ended higher by 0.42% or 32.35 points to close at 18,542. Similarly the S&P CNX Nifty too moved higher by 0.58% or 142.30 points to close at 5,610. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices outperformed their large cap counterparts, up by 1.14% and 1.13% respectively.
Among the 13 sectoral indices on the BSE, 9 managed a rise. Leading the pack of gainers was the BSE Realty index, up by 6.21%. It was followed by the BSE Capital Goods and BSE Bankex indices which were up by 3.74% and 3.24% respectively. The other major gainers were the BSE Power, BSE Oil&Gas, BSE Auto and BSE Metal indices which moved up by 2.19%, 1.95%, 1.81% and 1.45% respectively. On the other hand, the major losers were the BSE FMCG, BSE IT, BSE Teck and BSE Healthcare indices which fell by 3.66%, 3.18%, 1.86% and 1.81% respectively.
18 of the 30 shares on the BSE Sensex rose during the day. The top 5 gainers were Jindal Steel (5.99%), ICICI Bank (5.39%), SBI (5.36%), L&T (4.35%) and BHEL (4.30%). On the other hand, the top 5 losers were ITC (5.48%), TCS (5.03%), Dr. Reddy’s Lab (4.30%), HUL (2.76%) and Infosys (2.67%).
Banking stocks rose on the back of a rate cut announced by the RBI in its mid-quarter monetary policy review. The RBI announced a 25 bps cut in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) to 4.5%.
As per the data released by SEBI, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the equity and the debt segments to the tune of Rs 2857.10 crores and Rs 277.50 crores respectively.