Jai ho! Sensex on top of 15,000

Jai ho! Sensex on top of 15,000
Times of India, June 5, 2009, Page 27

President’s Assurance On Reforms Sets Pace; Mid, Small-Cap Stocks Surge

TIMES NEWS NETWORK, Mumbai

The BSE sensex shrugged off early bearish sentiment to advance 138 points to 15,009, its best close in nine months. The day's gains came on the back of hopes that the new government will push for faster economic reforms. Such hopes were based on the Presidential address to a joint session of the Parliament, market players said.

Although the sensex gained nearly 1%, mid and small cap stocks gained more, reflecting participation by those who are still feeling left out in the current three-month old rally that has added 84% to the sensex. On Thursday, BSE's Midcap Index rose 2.3% while the Smallcap Index ended 2.2% up. A section of the market players are advising caution to retail investors saying that although the Indian market is still advancing based on feel good factors that the government will try to revive the economy at a fast clip, the global economy might not be out of the woods yet. Some even fear that while the pace of slide of the US economy has slowed, Europe, with some of its large banks highly leveraged, might start sliding faster and pull the global markets down again.

Among the sectoral stocks, Realty index was the top gainer, ending 3.3% higher while Capital Goods index ended 3.2% up. On the other hand, metals witnessed selling and the sector index ended 2.1% off. The day's gains added about Rs 85,000 crore to investors' wealth with BSE's market capitalisation now at Rs 50.5 lakh crore. BSE's market cap is now near its year high level.

Among the top sensex gainers, Ranbaxy ended 6.1% higher at Rs 283, Sun Pharma gained 4.1% at Rs 1,307 and HUL ended 3.7% higher at Rs 249. Among the losers were Sterlite, down 5.9% at Rs 661 and Hindalco ended 3.5% down Rs 90. Winners outnumbered laggards by a margin of over 3-to-1 with 2,130 advances to 688 declines.