Sensex snaps 5-day losing streak, ends 112 pts higher

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty snapped five-day losing streak on Tuesday, gaining 0.7 per cent each on the back of stabilisation in European markets and Indian rupee. Index heavyweights L&T, ICICI Bank, Infosys and State Bank of India led the upmove.

After falling 700 points or 4 per cent in previous five sessions, the BSE benchmark rose 112.41 points or 0.69 per cent, to close at 16,328.25. The NSE benchmark went up 0.71 per cent or 35 points to 4,942.80.

France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were up 0.3-1 per cent after better than expected German gross domestic product data, though Greece woes still persist. Germany's GDP rose 0.5 per cent QoQ and 1.2 per cent YoY in first quarter of 2012.

Italy GDP declined by 0.8 per cent QoQ while French and Euro zone GDP remained flat at 0.00 per cent. Mecklai report says the data released on Tuesday helped allay fears of recession in the 17- member area, which majority of market participants had expected prior to the release of these reports.

The Indian rupee gained quite sharply after hitting an intraday low of 54.15 initially. Reports suggest that selling dollars by public sector banks helped the rupee gain. It appreciated by 23 paise to 53.73 a dollar as against previous close of 53.97 a dollar.

Top lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were up 1 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. Infosys, India's No. 2 software services exporter surged over 3per cent.

Larsen & Toubro, India's largest engineering and construction company by sales shot up 5.41per cent after the company strongly said its topline and order inflow would grow 15-20 per cent in FY13.

Healthcare stocks too participated in today's rally. Sun Pharma shot up over 3per cent and Cipla gained more than 1per cent.

Among metal stocks, Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, SAIL and Hindalco climbed 2-3per cent while Sesa Goa rose 5per cent.

Two-wheeler majors too witnessed buying interest - Hero Motocorp went up 2.65 per cent and Bajaj Auto gained 1.6 per cent. Realty major DLF jumped 2.5 per cent.

However, shares of top telecom operator Bharti Airtel fell as much as 5per cent intraday, before closing 1.3 per cent down. Enforcement Directorate is probing money laundering case against the company. Bharti said it maintained highest standards of corporate governance and had always complied with all necessary norms.

Among other largecaps, ITC, NTPC, Maruti and GAIL were down 1-3per cent; HDFC Bank and ONGC were moderately lower.

In the second line shares, India Infoline and Gammon India rallied 10per cent and 16per cent, respectively after better than expected results for Q4FY12.

Fertiliser stocks spiked after Fertiliser Ministry approved 10per cent hike in urea prices, though these stocks mildly came off day's high after fertiliser secretary says any hike in urea price has to be cleared by cabinet. There is no change in urea prices as of now, he says.

Chambal Fertiliser, FACT, Madras Fertiliser, Mangalore Chemical, NFL, RCF and Zuari Industries moved up 4-9 per cent.

Geometric shot up 15.4 per cent after Rakesh Jhunjhunwala bought 10 lakh shares of the company yesterday.

Orchid Chemical was down nearly 8per cent today and fell 13per cent yesterday after disappointing set of numbers in Q4FY13.

The market breadth was neutral while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.3-0.6 per cent.