India up 20% in Q1

Elena
31 Mar, 2006
New York City

Sensex index in India fell for the day but rose 3% for the week and 20% in the current quarter. Liquidity driven market rise is supported by higher tax collection, rising profits and strong consumer demand for credit, housing, light vehicles. Market lost 27 points for the day and gained more than 300 points for the week.

[R]8:45AM India closes up 20% in the first quarter.[/R]
Sensex index in India fell 27 points to 11,280 on the last day of the week but rose 3% or gained more than 300 points for the week. For the first quarter of this year the index has jumped 1,882 or 20% from the 2005 year end close of 9,398. Strong fund flows from domestic and international investors managed to attract more than $120 million per day in new capital.

Auto manufacturers and light commercial vehicle makers rose on higher sales in the fist quarter of this year. Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Udyog rose 3%. 1.7% and 2% respectively. Bajaj Auto closed at Rs. 2,741 and Tata Motors closed at Rs. 936. Eicher Motors jumped 15% on better than expected sales for the current quarter. Metal makers rose for the second time this week as market expects a metal price hike of between 7% and 10% in April month by Tata Steel, stock rose 2.7%. Hindustan Zinc rose 4.5% as zinc prices have firmed in the international markets. IT companies stock fell on profit taking. TCS, Infosys and Wipro lost 2.7%, 1.9% and 0.8% on profit taking.


[R] 8:00 AM European averages declined at mid-day.[/R]
European markets rebounded from yesterday’s solid gains and traded lower at mid-day, taking their cue from weak close of U.S markets Thursday when most blue-chip stocks lost ground as higher interest rates concerns weighed. Technology stocks like Nokia and Ericsson failed to sustain recent gains. However, British hedge-fund manager Man Group bucked the downward trend, rising 3.1%. The German DAX 30 rose 0.4%, the French CAC 40 was up 0.4%, and London FTSE 100 also gained 0.4%. In the first quarter European markets advanced 8% on surging materials and utilities sectors.


[R]7:45AM Asian markets finished largely higher. South Korea led gainers.[/R]
Asian-Pacific benchmarks finished broadly higher. The Nikkei advanced 0.1% to 17,059.66, extending recent rally that sent the index to a multi-year high. The index closed the financial year above the key level of 17,000, supported by economic data, property and pharmaceutical stocks. NEC climbed 4.4%, Sumitomo Realty jumped 2.8%, Daiichi Sangyo rose 1.3%. South Korea’s Kospi surged to 1.6%, boosted by strength in the tech and financial sectors on expectations of solid earnings results. The biggest gainers were Kookmin Bank, rising 3.2% and Hynix Semiconductor, up 2.1%. Taiwan Weighted index rose 1% on strong buying interest in tech and financial stocks. China Shanghai Composite gained 0.3%, lifted by copper and gold stocks. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was the most notable decliner across the region, falling 0.5%, led by losses in China Mobile and weak property stocks.