INDIAN STOCK MARKET

The key benchmark indices ended higher extending yesterday’s gains. Market had surged in early afternoon trade when the BSE Sensex surpassed 16,000 mark. It immediately fell below that level.

IT stocks rose. Capital goods, power stocks declined. Reliance Industries gained. Wipro and Satyam Computer Services were major gainers from the Sensex pack. Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) declined after announcing provisional results for the year ended March 2008. Reliance Energy and Mahindra & Mahindra were other major losers from Sensex pack. The market breadth was negative compared to strong breadth at the onset of the trading session. BSE Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices declined.

European markets which opened after Indian market, were subdued. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and UK's FTSE 100 were down by between 0.43% to 0.76%. Asian markets which opened before Indian market edged higher after a US jobs indicator raised hopes of a milder recession than previously feared in the world's biggest economy.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 82.15 points or 0.52% at 15,832.55. At the day’s high of 16002.73, the Sensex rose 252.33 points in early afternoon trade. At the day’s low of 15,699.21 Sensex lost 51.19 points in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty gained 17.4 points or 0.37% at 4,771.60.

From recent low of 14,809.49 on 17 March 2008 Sensex has recovered 1023.06 points or 6.9% at current 15,832.55. From the recent high of 16,371.29 on 28 March 2008, Sensex is off 538.74 points or 3.29%

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4789 crore today 3 April 2008 compared to a turnover of Rs 4,955.40 on 2 April 2008.

As per the provisional figure on NSE, foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs 393.21 crore in Indian equities while domestic funds were net buyers of shares worth Rs 265.39 crore.

The market breadth was negative: On BSE 1215 shares advanced as compared to 1409 that declined. 63 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index down 0.4% to Rs 6,387.23 and BSE Small-Cap index down 0.91% to 7,840.29.

Nifty April 2008 futures were at 4785, at a premium of 13.40 points as compared to spot closing of 4771.60.

The NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 32,513.16 crore, which was lower than Rs 34,170.35 crore on Wednesday, 2 April 2008.

BSE IT index (up 3.31% to 3,764.91), BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.97% to 10,531.88), BSE FMCG index (up 1.12% to 2,344.68), BSE HealthCare index (up 0.64% to 3,887.73), BSE Metal index (up 0.53% to 13,588.76) outperformed Sensex.

BSE Realty index (up 0.3% to 7,523.32) , BSE Bankex (down 0.02% to 7,820.62), BSE PSU index (down 0.54% to 7,347.78), BSE Auto index (down 1.07% to 4,490.94), BSE Consumer Durables index (down 1.53% to 3,857.74), BSE Capital Goods index (down 2.1% to 13,214.73) and BSE Power index (down 2.6% to 3,055.57) underperformed Sensex.