Indian markets end at one-month high

Benchmark share indices continues their winning streak on Thursday ending at one-month closing highs, amid firm global cues, led by gains in private banks and index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 195 points or 1.2% at 16,649 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 53 points or 1% at 5,050.

On May 7, 2012, the Sensex had ended at 16,913 and the Nifty at 5,114.

In the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei average rose on speculation that euro zone leaders would take policy action to curb the spread of the region's debt crisis, with a softer yen lending additional support.

The Nikkei advanced for the third day, gaining 1.2% to 8,640. Hong Kong shares rose tracking the bounce in regional markets, as investors bought into beaten-down blue chips on monetary stimulus hopes.

Hang Seng gained 0.8% along with Kospi Composite which closed up 2.5%

European shares extended gains after the ECB on Wednesday maintained its status quo on keeping policy rates unchanged. Major European markets like CAC, DAX and FTSE added 0.6-0.7% each.

Among Sensex shares, index heavyweight, Reliance Industries ended up 0.9% at Rs 721 after the company said it has bought back stocks worth Rs 1,929 crore since the launch of share repurchase programme in February -- achieving 22.5% of the targeted amount.

Further, company chairman Mukesh Ambani announced in its 38th Annual General Meeting today said that the company plans to invest Rs 1 lakh crore in the next four yrs, doubling the operating profits.

RIL aims to increase revenue from retail business by as much as six times in 3-4 years and is targeting a ten-fold increase in sales from its shale gas business in the US, Chairman Mukesh Ambani told company shareholders here today.

It is investing over $12 billion in the refining and petrochemical industries and has drawn plans to double natural gas output from its flagging KG-D6 fields to 60 million cubic meters a day on a "sustained" basis.

Software shares witnessed a mixed trend with Infosys gaining 2.8% at Rs 2,453 while Wipro and TCS ended down 1-2%.

Rate sensitive

shares in the banking and auto segment were among the other gainers.

Banking shares continued to rise on renewed buying interest on hopes that the central bank at its policy meet on June 18 would cut key policy rates to boost growth.

HDFC Bank gained 3.4% to end at Rs 537, ICICI Bank ended up 2.8% at Rs 830.  Mortgage lender HDFC rose 0.9% to end at Rs 655.

SBI ended marginally up after the bank decided to cut interest rates on retail term deposits by 25 bps for tenures up to 240 days.

The new rates that are applicable only on deposits below Rs 15 lakhs will be effective from June 8, 2012.

In the auto pack, Maruti Suzuki ended up 3% at Rs 1,144,extending its about 4% rally in past two days after the country's largest car maker said it will invest Rs 4,000 crore to set up a new production facility in Gujarat by 2015-16. Among other auto shares, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp ended up 1-2.4% each.

Engineering major L&T ended up 0.8% at Rs 1,277 after it said its construction arm L&T COnstruction has won Rs 2,410 crore new orders across various businesses during April-June 2012.

BHEL ended up 1.2% at Rs 218 after the state-owned company today said it has commissioned a 250 MW unit at Harduaganj thermal power project in Uttar Pradesh.

Among other shares, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. ended up 2% at Rs 53.75 after the company said that the Karnataka Government has sanctioned a special incentive package for the company's phase-III expansion and upgradation.

Rallis India surged 8.2% to Rs 134.20 after Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, an ace investor, bought 952,000 shares of the company worth Rs 12 crore through an open market transaction.

M and B Switchgears has soared 8.2% to end at Rs 97.35, extending its three day's rally after the two power trading exchanges Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Ltd. (PXIL) commenced trading of solar Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) on Monday.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices as focus shifted back to large caps.

The BSE Mid-cap index ended up 0.7% while the Small-cap index ended up 0.5%.

The market breadth was positive on BSE with 1,525 gainers and 1,164 losers.