Nine sectoral indices outpace Sensex; Oil & Gas biggest gainer
Nine sectoral indices outpace Sensex; Oil & Gas biggest gainer
Mumbai: Even as the Sensex, the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), made its fastest 1,000-point rally in just five trading days since last Wednesday when it crossed the 16,000 mark, nine other indices on the bourse recorded higher gains than the 30-share index.
The largest gainer among the pack was the BSE Oil & Gas index, which gained 7.76% in the five trading sessions from 8,924.11 to Wednesday’s close of 9,616.94.
The steep jump in the BSE Oil index, said Sandeep Nanda, a vice-president at online brokerage firm Sharekhan, was mainly due to huge gains made by Reliance Group companies. Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd, controlled by billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani, closed at Rs2,321.95 down 3.24% on Wednesday.
The second highest gainer was the BSE Realty Index, the youngest index on the exchange.
The realty index added 6.01% during this period to close at 8,973.38 on Wednesday. The index was launched in mid-July.
The index tracking prices of state-owned firms, the BSE PSU index, was the third largest gainer, up 5.4% to 8,055.5.
The BSE Bankex, that has bank stocks, went up by 4.91% to close at 9,117.80. The bank index recorded a new high today at 9,205.32, adding 93 points from its previous high.
The BSE Metal index also gained over 4.3% to close at 13,085.64.
“This 1,000-point rally was surprisingly fast. The stocks were moved mainly by the foreign money that flowed after the Fed’s rate cut. Almost every other sector except select few such as IT and health care has achieved big gains in the past one week," added Nanda
Apart from the sectoral indices, the BSE 100 index that comprises the 100 largest companies in terms of market capitalization, gained 4.23% to close at 8,781.46.
The BSE 200 index also gained more than 4%.
The broader BSE 500 Index, with top 500 firms, also beat the Sensex, with gains in excess of 3.8%.
The BSE 500 closed at 6,647.44. The capital goods sector also gained marginally more than the closing value of Sensex during this period. All the other indices gained in the range of -0.35% to 3.32%. The BSE Healthcare index was the worst performer, at the bottom of the table.
The BSE Midcap index gained 3.32% to close at 7,352.62, while BSE Smallcap index went up by 1.7% to close at 9,029.34.
The BSE Tech index rose by 2.78% to close at 3,720.46, while the BSE IT Index made marginal gains to close at 4,501.97 points.
However, the BSE IT index was the highest gainer on Wednesday.
The BSE Consumer Durable Index rose by 0.04% to close at 4,745.45. The major loser was BSE FMCG index, which fell by 0.16% to close at 2,137.42, to be followed by the BSE Healthcare Index with a fall of 0.35% to close at 3,691.36.
“Our view would be to avoid sectors dependent on interest rates and currency, like automobiles, consumer durables and information technology," Balakrishnan Kunnambath, managing director of India operations of SG Private Banking (Asia Pacific).
“Post the Fed cut, the interest rate scenario has softened and the banking sector could be upgraded to over weight from under weight earlier. The sectors which are likely to do well are pipes, telecom, banking and capital goods."
nesil.s@livemint.com
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