MUMBAI: After Monday Mayhem, there was a semblance of revival. The BSE sensex closed 341 points higher at the end of the day.
Heavyweights which saw increased buying include Reliance Industries, which surged 4% to end at Rs 969.10, with volumes totalling 3.26m shares on the BSE alone. Diversified company and Aditya Birla flagship, Grasim Industries, also saw renewed interest with the stock jumping by an unprecedented 9% to Rs 1,916.70, with over 62,432 shares changing hands on the BSE.
“Smart guys are buying as Monday’s fall has presented a major opportunity,” said Arpit Agarwal, CEO of Dawnay Day AV, a unit of UK-based financial services major Dawnay Day, adding that many foreign funds have started buying “in a big way.” Indian equities had fallen by an average of 15% after reaching a high on May 11, when the index crossed the 12,600 levels.
Heavyweights which saw increased buying include Reliance Industries, which surged 4% to end at Rs 969.10, with volumes totalling 3.26m shares on the BSE alone. Diversified company and Aditya Birla flagship, Grasim Industries, also saw renewed interest with the stock jumping by an unprecedented 9% to Rs 1,916.70, with over 62,432 shares changing hands on the BSE. In the futures and options segment, market participants said that the situation had improved. “The panic which was there yesterday, was absent today with moderate rollovers,” said Rahul Rege, senior vice-president at Sharekhan. “Typically, the rollovers are about 40%; today they were about 25%,” he added.
Rollovers in the F&O segment implies closing out position in the current-month futures contract and taking a fresh position on the next-month futures contracts. The May futures contract expires on May 25. “The worst is over...and the biggest reason is because NSE is not pressing the panic button,” said Dimensional Securities MD Ajit Surana. “There were fears about payment crisis, but after the banks assured help, concerns about liquidity have gone.” Trading sentiment improved after the NSE clarified that there were no payments crisis.
But traders said that the trends in the coming days are not strong as most investors are still wary of higher levels. The fears come even as the OECD painted a grim economic outlook. In its recent report, the OECD said that India’s growth could slow to 7% next year, from the current 7.5% due to tight monetary and fiscal policy measures that will restrict investments. There was mixed sentiment among key markets overseas, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rising 0.43%, while Japan’s Nikkei was down 1.63%. Singapore’s Straits Times Index was up 0.5%, while the Jakarta Composite Index rose 1.3%.
