Sensex ends above 20,000 led by RIL

Benchmark share indices ended nearly 2% higher on Monday led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries after the company and its partners announced a significant gas and condensate discovery in the KG D6 block.

The 30-share Sensex ended at 20,031 up 326 points or 1.66% and the 50-share Nifty ended at 6,083 up by 100 points or 1.66%.

The Sensex and the Nifty touched an intra-day high of 20,083 levels and 6,100 mark, respectively.

All eyes are on India's gross domestic product growth number, to be released on Friday, a day after the expiry of derivative contracts for May.

A rush of companies looking to meet a deadline for public shareholding will also be watched alongwith corporate earnings.

On the global front, Japan's Nikkei share average skidded 3.2% on Monday in an increasingly tense market after last week's turbulent trade that sent the benchmark reeling to its worst one-day loss in two years.

The Nikkei ended down 469.80 points at 14,142.65 after trading as low as 14,027.42.

Monday's drop broke below the index's 25-day moving average of 14,333.11 but held above 13,990, the 61.8 per cent retracement of its slide from February 2007 to October 2008.

With UK and U.S. markets both closed for public holidays, European equity and bond markets saw a quieter than usual start to the week.

Back home, BSE Consumer Durable and Oil & Gas indices surged by nearly 3% each followed by counters like Metal, TECk, Power, Healthcare, Banks, Realty and IT, all gaining between 1-2% each.

In fact, all the major BSE sectoral indices ended in green zone.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was the top Sensex gainer, up over 5% on reports that the company and its partners BP and NIKO have struck a significant gas and condensate discovery in the KG D6

block.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries moved higher by nearly 5%, recovering its entire Friday’s loss, ahead of its January-March (Q4) quarter results that will be announced tomorrow.

Bharti Airtel gained by over 3% after the company reclaimed top position as the largest operator in the rural sector, displacing Vodafone India, by adding 1.66 million subscribers net.

Other notable gainers were Jindal Steel, Hindalco, Sterlite, HDFC, Tata Motors, BHEL and HDFC Bank, all gaining between 2-4%.

On the losing side, Cipla, M&M and Maruti Suzuki declined between 1-2%.

The broader indices under performed the benchmarks but ended positive. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained by 1% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,364 advancing and 981 shares declining.

SMART MOVERS

TTK Healthcare tanked nearly 12% falling 15% from intra-day’s high, on reporting a 40% year-on-year (yoy) fall in net profit at Rs 2.25 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 (Q4).

AstraZeneca Pharma India zoomed over 15%, bouncing back 11% from intra-day’s low ahead of its promoter AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals AB Sweden stake sale plan through offer-for-sale (OFS) tomorrow.

Force Motors dipped nearly 7% after reporting a net loss of Rs 23 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 (Q4) due to negative sale growth and poor operating performance.

Britannia Industries soared 16% after reporting a robust 66% year-on-year growth in net profit at Rs 88 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31.2013 due to lower raw material cost and other expenditure.

Avanti Feeds was locked in upper circuit of 18% after reporting over two-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 6.61 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 (Q4).