Maruti Suzuki shares surge 7.58%
In a very choppy trading session, the benchmark Sensex and Nifty touched new all time highs on Tuesday but gave up all the gains towards the end of the session to close with marginal gains. Backed by heavy buying in Maruti Suzuki shares, Sensex during the session rose by 230 points and touched a new high of 22,040.72. Maruti Suzuki was the biggest contributor in Sensex and closed 7.58 per cent up.
Just like the markets, rupee also rose sharply above Rs60 per dollar levels but slid back and ended the session flat at Rs61.19 per dollar. Sensex breached its record high of 22,023.98 logged of March 10. While the broader index, Nifty surged to new lifetime high of 6,574.95 during the session. Its previous peak was 6,562.85 on March 11.
As per experts, markets failed to sustain on the higher levels as investors and institutions booked profits. Cautious trading ahead of a US Federal Reserve policy meeting and a highly anticipated speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin on making Crimea part of the Russian Federation, also weighed on global sentiment, experts added.
Meanwhile on currency front, early rally in domestic stocks amid increased capital inflows helped the rupee to resume higher at Rs61.02 per dollar and further surged to an intraday high of Rs60.88 per dollar. However, it fell back on late selling in share markets and dropped to a low of Rs61.22 per dollar, before concluding at last weekend’s close of Rs61.19 per dollar. Dollar demand from importers also later weighed on the rupee, a forex dealer said.
While front line indices saw heavy profit booking, the BSE Midcap and Small cap indices firmed up 0.95 pct and 0.97 per cent respectively on buying by retail investors. Off the 30 stocks comprising Sensex, 17 advanced, led by Maruti Suzuki as it gained by 7.58 per cent after the company last week announced to seek minority shareholders’ approval for the controversial Gujarat plant, which parent Suzuki Motor Corp decided to take over.
Other gainers included SBI, ITC and Coal India as they rose by 2.72 per cent, 2.56 per cent and 2.48 per cent respectively. However, Tata Motors fell by 3.03 per cent, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro and Infosys as they slid by 1.51 per cent, 1.23 per cent and 1.19 per cent respectively.
Among the sectoral indices, FMCG index rose the most by 1.84 per cent followed by power and consumer durable indices which gained 1.27 per cent and 0.89 per cent respectively. Information technology index was the worst performer and declined by 0.82 per cent.