Stocks in India Surge; ICICI Bank Soars

123jump.com Staff
29 Apr, 2009
New York City

Stocks in Mumbai trading surged ahead of derivatives expiration. In volatile trading market indexes traded up despite election jitters and positive earnings from Bharti Airtel, Sterlite Industries and Patni Computer. ICICI Bank led the gainers in banking sector with a surge of 9%.

[R]5:30PM Mumbai, 8:00PM New York – Stocks in Mumbai trading surged ahead of derivatives expiration. In volatile trading market indexes traded up despite election jitters and positive earnings from Bharti Airtel, Sterlite Industries and Patni Computer.[/R]

The Sensex index surged 413.21 or 3.76% to 11,414.96 and CNX Nifty 50 increased 117.65 or 3.5% to 3,480.

The short covering ahead of derivative expiration tomorrow and generally positive economic outlook despite the election jitters lifted the market averages to a higher close. The index opened higher and scaled new highs and accelerated the gains in the final hour of trading.

Of the stocks traded on the BSE, 1,429 stocks advanced, 1,059 declined and 62 were unchanged. Of the Sensex 30 stocks, 29 increased and 1 declined.

Daily turnover of stocks on the BSE declined to 4,141 crore rupees from 4,255 crore rupees in the previous session.

Bharti Airtel increased 3.1% after it reported 21% increase in fourth quarter net income of 2,239.30 crore rupees and 26% increase in sales to 9,824.50 crore rupees. The company announced the stock split of 2-for-1.

Reliance Industries surged 3.8% to 1,802.40 rupees after the company signed the agreements with nine power companies to supply natural gas at eleven locations. The signed agreements will distribute 11 million standard cubic meters of natural gas. The company did not disclose the gas price but earlier the company had agreed to price the natural gas at fixed price between $4 and $4.50 mBtu.

ONGC increased 4.2% after crude oil in Asian trading closed above $50 a barrel.

Banks closed higher with ICICI surging 9.3% after the company released earnings. Goldman Sachs weighed in with its higher rating on the company. Separately, the bank lowered its lending and retail customer deposit rates by 50 basis points after the RBI lowered its rate.

Reserve Bank of India also extended credits at 50 basis points lower than the prime rate to exporters between 6 and months depending upon the terms of payments. The move is likely to help exporters in improving their liquidity.

State Bank of India increased 4.1% and HDFC Bank increased 3.8%.

Rupee edged up to 50.11 from 50.52 against a dollar. The software exporters rose in the session.

TCS increased 4%, Patni Computer System added 7.4% and Wipro increased 4.9%. Patni reported first quarter net income increase of 24.3% to 85.35 crore rupees.

Sterlite Industries surged 6.7% after it reported fourth quarter earnings plunged 54.6% to 598 crore rupees from a year ago quarter on sales decline of 34.7% to 4,800 crore rupees.