Indian Shares Rally Ahead Of Long Weekend

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rose sharply on Wednesday, aided by strong buying in financial, auto and healthcare stocks on the first day of the new fiscal year. Heading into the long weekend, investors took weak core sector and mixed auto sales data in their stride. The stock markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, respectively.

The benchmark index S&P BSE Sensex rose 302.65 points or 1.08 percent to 28,260.14, while the broader CNX Nifty index closed up 95.25 points or 1.12 percent at 8,586.25. About 1996 shares advanced on the BSE, 704 shares declined, and 87 shares closed unchanged.

Financials closed mostly higher ahead of RBI's policy review due on April 7. SBI and ICICI Bank rose more than 2 percent each, HDFC gained 1.7 percent and Axis Bank advanced 1.6 percent.

Tata Motors, which recently announced a rights issue to raise $1.2 billion, gained 2.7 percent. PNB soared 5.3 percent after infusion of capital by the government.

Ranbaxy Laboratories and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries both jumped around 6 percent. Ranbaxy Labs will stop trading on the bourses from April 6 as it is getting merged with the former.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories advanced 1.8 percent after the drugmaker said it would buy some established brands of Belgian drugmaker UCB SA in South Asia for Rs. 800 crore. Larsen & Toubro gained a percent on bagging a Rs 5,580-crore contract from state-run power producer NTPC.

Hindalco Industries rallied 2.5 percent as the Supreme Court stayed summons issued to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, billionaire K.M. Birla and others in relation to the coal block allocation case.

eClerx Services added 1.2 percent after the company said it would acquire an Italian media content management company for approximately Rs 167 crore.

Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers, National Fertilizers, FACT, Chambal Fertilizer & Chemicals, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals and Zuari Agro Chemicals soared 6-12 percent as the government approved a policy to supply gas at a uniform price to all fertilizer plants through a pooling mechanism.

State-run oil companies closed little changed as they announced a reduction in petrol and diesel prices in line with a drop in international crude oil prices. Low-cost carrier SpiceJet jumped 3.5 percent after a cut in jet fuel prices.

Oil prices extended losses on Wednesday amid expectations a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers would raise the global glut in crude.

Maruti Suzuki India, India's largest car maker, dropped 1.6 percent after reporting weak sales figures for March. However, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ashok Leyland rose about a percent each after reporting their March sales figures.

HCL Technologies tumbled 3.8 percent. The country's fourth-largest software services firm warned of currency impact in the March quarter due to cross currency fluctuations. Infosys fell 2.1 percent and TCS eased 0.4 percent.

Gas utility GAIL shed 0.7 percent after the government reduced the natural gas price by about 8 percent to $4.66 a unit from Wednesday to reflect the softening in international prices.

On the global front, the Asian markets ended mixed, with Chinese shares hitting fresh seven-year highs on hopes for further stimulus, while Japanese shares succumbed to selling pressure in the wake of a firmer yen.

Traders continued to fret about falling oil prices and the likelihood of a Greek exit from the Eurozone after bailout negotiations between Greece and its international lenders ended in Brussels without new reform plans being agreed.

European stocks rose notably, encouraged by an upward revision to the manufacturing PMI reading for the Eurozone.