TCS, Wipro lift Sensex up by 141 points; RIL down 1.70 per cent

Mumbai: Snapping the two-day losing streak, the BSE benchmark Sensex on Monday gained over 141 points to settle the day at 21,205.05 on buying support in IT stocks after Wipro announced encouraging third quarter earnings.

Country's largest software services exporter TCS surged 5.53 per cent to emerge as the biggest Sensex gainer of the day. Today's gain to a great extent made up for the huge loss of 5.77 per cent it suffered on the previous trading day despite the company posting robust earnings.

Wipro, which on Friday announced a 27 per cent jump in consolidated net profit for the third quarter, rose 3.77 per cent, the second biggest among Sensex scrips. Reliance Industries (RIL) was the top loser at 1.70 per cent despite market beating earnings for the October-December period.

The 30-share indicator touched a low of 21,001.13 in early trade. A sudden buying emerged, mainly in IT stocks, lifting the key index to 21,205.05, a gain of 141.43 points. In the previous two sessions, Sensex had lost 225.87 points.

The 50-issue NSE Nifty also rose by 42.30 points to end the day at to 6,303.95. Of the 30 Sensex shares, 16 ended higher while 14 finished with losses. Major gainers included Sesa Sterlite at 2.49 per cent, ITC 1.65 per cent, Tata Motors per cent, BHEL 1.26 per cent, SBI 1.17 per cent, M&M 1.00 per cent.

Besides RIL, Coal India at 1.12 per cent and Tata Power at 1.02 per cent were the biggest losers. Among the BSE sectoral indices, IT rose by 2.83 per cent followed by teck 2.50 per cent, FMCG 1.08 per cent, bankex 0.75 per cent, auto 0.72 per cent and realty per cent.

Oil&Gas index closed with a fall of almost 1 per cent following a drop in Reliance Industries. Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services, said it was a mixed day of trading in Indian equity markets.

They traded a bit weak in early trade on negative Asian stocks, which were reeling under the weak Chinese GDP numbers. "In last of hours of trading shares got revived and ended the day on a strong note, buoyed by some good positive rallies seen in the IT and banking Stocks."

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) picked up shares worth Rs 75.27 crore last Friday, as per the provisional figures issued by stock exchanges. The market breadth turned positive as 1,407 stocks rose, 1,238 declined and 152 ruled steady.

Total turnover fell to Rs 1,831.60 crore from the last Friday's level of Rs 3,133.56 crore. Asian stocks ended mixed after China's economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter as gains in factory output and investment spending eased.

Key benchmark indices in China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong were down in the range of 0.59-0.88 per cent while those in South Korea and Taiwan rose by 0.30-0.48 per cent.

European markets were trading lower in their early trade as indices in France, Germany and UK eased by 0.06-0.34 per cent.

Next: Rupee down 8 paise against dollar

Rupee down 8 paise against dollar

Sustained capital inflows, a slightly weak dollar in the overseas markets and recovery in local equities restricted the rupee fall, a forex dealer said.

The benchmark S&P Sensex today bounced back by 141.43 points after two days of loses, while FIIs injected Rs 384.89 crore as per provisional data with stock exchanges.

The dollar index was down by 0.05 per cent against a basket of six major global rivals.

Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India), said: "Dollar demand from oil importers weakened the rupee but the fall was capped as the dollar index traded weak in the global market and the local equities closed up." Forward dollar premiums dropped sharply on fresh receipts by exporters.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in June dipped to 214-216 paise from last Friday's close. Far-forward contracts maturing in December tumbled to 442-444 paise from 459-461 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 61.6345 and for the euro at 83.4245. Forward dollar premiums dropped sharply on fresh receipts by exporters.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premium payable in June dipped to 214-216 paise from last Friday's close. Far-forward contracts maturing in December tumbled to 442-444 paise from 459-461 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 61.6345 and for the euro at 83.4245. The rupee eased to 101.24 against the pound from 101.22 previously and also remained weak at 59.16 per 100 Japanese yen from 58.94.

It, however, firmed up further to 83.47 per euro from 83.71.