Bulls push back

Today's major news

Aegis Logistics acquires Shell Gas; the stock shots up 10.82%.

Wire and Wireless India targets townships for HITS expansion; the stock jumps 3.91%.

Reliance Infrastructure to commission projects worth Rs10,000 crore; the stock surges 0.79%.

Reliance Industries announces third successive gas discovery in KG basin; the stock closes the day 0.22% higher.

Aban Offshore's subsidiary redeems bonds worth Rs8 billion; the stock rises 4.30%.

Post-market summary

Global signals

The European indices opened positive for the second successive day on Tuesday led by rise in financial and pharmaceutical stocks. At the time of writing this report FTSE 100 was trading 0.88% higher than its previous close.

All the Asian indices except Shanghai Composite (down 2%) closed higher. SGX Nifty was 56 points up for the day.

US stock futures opened higher as investors keep an eye on third quarter GDP numbers, existing home sales and Richmond Fed survey for December.

Indian indices

Taking leads from buoyant markets globally, the Indian indices opened higher and remained up all through the day. The Sensex opened 32 points high, hit the intra-day high of 16738 and the day’s low of 16633. At closing bell, the Sensex was at 16692, 91 points higher. Nifty closed 33 points higher at 4986.

Sensex sentiment

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,885 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,694 stocks advanced, whereas 1,107 stocks declined. Eighty four stocks closed unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Out of the 13 sector indices on the BSE, only BSE IT and BSE HC closed with marginal loss. The remaining indices ended higher. Among gainers BSE Metal surged the most by 2.87% followed by BSE PSU that rose by 1.59% for the day.

On stocks’ front, SAIL surged the most by 6.47% followed by REI Agro that rose 5.97% and Opto Circuits that jumped 5.07% up. Among losers, Lupin slid the most by 3.49% followed by Piramal Healthcare that fell 3.14%.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy’s stock was the darling of the day with over 0.97 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by realtor Unitech (0.68 crore shares), Ispat Industries (0.64 crore shares), IFCI (0.59 crore shares) and SAIL (0.29 crore shares).