Optimism over Europe fuels gains

Fri, 7 Oct Closing

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Indices in the Indian stock market remained range bound during the final hours of the trading session. However, strong gains witnessed during the earlier part of the day were enough to make them close on a very buoyant note. Thus, while BSE-Sensex edged higher by around 440 points, gains on the NSE-Nifty came in at close to 140 points (up 2.9%). Gains in the BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices were slightly lower as both of them notched up close to 1% gains. Only one Sensex stock closed the day in the negative.

Most other Asian indices also closed on a positive note whereas Europe too is trading mostly in the red currently. The rupee was trading at Rs 49.2 to the dollar at the time of writing.

The sudden turn in sentiments today was caused by speculation doing the rounds that Europe will do all that it takes to protect its banking system from the Greek crisis and also the failure of other indebted nations. What also helped matters was the fact that the Bank of England boosted its asset purchase program by more than 33% to 275 bn pounds. Whether all these measures end up boosting the economies of these regions remains to be seen. With the evidence at hand though, the likelihood of such a possibility remains on the lower side.

Tata Motors emerged one of the top gainers in the markets today as it edged higher by around 8%. While the overall bullish sentiment no doubt helped, what also attracted investor interest were the company's launch of the Tata Manza sedan and the international Tata Prima range of premium commercial vehicles in the South African market. The company sees Africa as a region of tremendous potential and the most recent launches will serve to further strengthen the Tata brand in these markets. The company also exhibited a wide range of other vehicles laden with latest technologies.

Today's optimism did not quite rub off on cement major Ultratech as the stock closed nearly 1% lower on the bourses today. The pessimism seemed an outcome of the poor sales performance of the company for the month of September. As per reports, the company's September sales reported a fall of 3% over same month last year. Amongst other things, the sales were hit by the ongoing agitation over the Telangana issue in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. On a sequential basis, the drop was nastier, going down by 10% YoY. The cement industry is going through some tough times currently as not only is there an oversupply type of a situation, the demand is also not rising as fast as one would expect on account of rise in interest rates and inflation.