Markets end higher

The new derivatives series has begun on a stable note. Building on the gains of the previous session and heeding the favourable global environment, the markets opened on a steady note and did well to ignore the minor hiccups along the way to finish with reasonable gains.

The Sensex ended at 17558, higher by 55 points and the Nifty shut shop at 5270, up 17 points. The mid-cap index ended a per cent up at 7184 and the small-cap index gained 0.3% at 9207.

Wall Street had a good session after fears of contagion from the European debt crisis eased and US jobless claims dropped by 11,000 last week. And there was green splashed across Asian screens.

Meanwhile, the consumer price index rose 14.86% in March from a year earlier and remained unchanged from February's annual rise. And the consumer price index for industrial workers remained steady at 170 in March.

Auto stocks advanced ahead of the release of April 2010 monthly sales data next week. Hero Honda strengthened by 3.7% to be the leading gainer on the BSE. Tata Motors touched a 52-week high of Rs 877 before closing at Rs 872, higher by 3.5%. 

And realty shares gained after the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced service tax concessions for the housing sector. Reliance Infra added 1.1% at Rs 1136 and DLF added 0.6% up at Rs 311.

Metal stocks declined, mirroring fall in the commodity prices on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday. Tata Steel ended at Rs 618, weaker by 2.2% and Hindalco ended at Rs 177, lower by 1.1%. In the non-metal space, Wipro and Grasim were the other significant losses. And index heavyweight RIL edged 0.2% lower at Rs 1032.

In the mid-cap space, United Phosphorus, Nirma and Ashok Leyland spurted by more than 10%. And in the small-cap space, ICSA, Halonix and Rane Holdings gained between 9% and 15% each.

The market breadth was marginally positive at close. Out of 2998 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1680 advancing stocks as against 1217 declines.

Tata Steel topped the value charts on the BSE with a total turnover of Rs 132.52 crore. This was followed by SBI (Rs 118.53 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 115.96 crore), RIL (Rs 72.45 crore) and ONGC (Rs 55.32 crore).

Tata Steel led the volume charts with trades of 2.11 million. It was followed by Tata Motors (1.33 million), DLF (1.07 million), Jaiprakash Associates (0.98 million) and Reliance Communications (0.79 million).