Markets gain on IMF's initiative

Indian shares ended at their 6-week closing highs on Thursday on firm global cues following the initiative by the International Monetary Fund to help countries impacted by the Euro debt crisis.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 192 points at 16,644 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 63 points at 5,018.

On December 7, 2011, the Sensex had ended at 16,877 and the Nifty at 5,063.

Meanwhile, food inflation rate for the week   ended January 7, 2012 stayed in the negative and dropped to -0.42% on rising food demand mainly due to fall in prices of onion and vegetables.

Fuel group inflation remained unchanged at 14.45% and primary articles inflation came in at 2.47%.

Back to markets, buying was visible across the board. Realty, metal, power and banking stocks were amongst the top sectoral performers.

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The BSE Realty index was the top sectoral gainer and ended close to its two-month high levels.

The index jumped 3.5% or 58 points at 1,695 levels.

According to reports, the property registrations in Mumbai surged 45% in December 2011 over November.

"Residential property market in Mumbai will start witnessing a recovery in the second half of 2012 as it looks set to bottom out by the second quarter of the year," said property consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle India in a recent report.

DLF was the top gainer from this space. The stock jumped nearly 5% to close at Rs 210 on reports that the India's largest real estate firm is planning to sell a convention centre project in Delhi and its wind power business for about Rs 1,800 crore early next fiscal.

HDIL, Parsvnath Developers, Phoenix Mills, Sobha Developers and D B Realty were also among the gainers.

The metal stocks gained after China, the world's largest consumer of copper and aluminium, recently announced fourth quarter GDP numbers that were better-than-expected.

The BSE Metal index surged nearly 3% or 307 points to shut shop at 11,234 levels.

Sterlite Industries was the top gainer from this sector, up nearly 7% to close at Rs 115.

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Hindalco, Hindustan Zinc, Jindal Steel, JSW Steel, NMDC and Sesa Goa also gained in Thursday's deals.

Tata Steel jumped, 2.4% to close at Rs 435 after the company announced that it had secured a major contract from Siemens Wind Power to supply 25,000 tonne of high-quality profiled steel plate for wind towers.

Shares of power companies have rallied on the bourses after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the promoters of private power companies that a road map would be prepared to resolve the issues in a time-bound manner.

Reliance Infrastructure, Adani Power, Lanco Infra, Tata Power, PTC India, Thermax, NTPC and Suzlon Energy were among the top gainers.

ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, Gail and Reliance Industries were also among the gainers on the BSE benchmark index.

However, technology and FMCG stocks were under a mild selling pressure.

The BSE IT and Teck indices were among the top sectoral losers, down 0.3% each by the close.

Oracle Financial Software, Hexaware Technologies MphasiS and Infosys were the losers from the information technology space.

Bharti Airtel shed nearly 1% to Rs 342 after the Income Tax (I-T) Department slapped a Rs 1,067-crore demand notice on the telecom giant for non-payment of TDS dues in the last four financial years in connection with its overseas operations. BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Cipla and HUL also ended on a weaker note.

On the earnings front, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp announced their third quarter results.

HDFC Bank, country's third largest lender by assets, posted a 31% rise in net profit for the third quarter ended December, 2011 at Rs 1,429.66 crore as compared to Rs 1,087.83 crore for the same quarter last year. The stock ended higher by 1% at Rs 485.

Bajaj Auto posted a 19.19% rise in net profit at Rs 795 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2011.  In the same period last year, it's net stood at Rs 667 crore. The stock ended at 1,467, up 0.8%.

Hero MotoCorp, the company that recently separated from Honda group after a 26-year old joint venture, posted a 43% rise in net profit for the third quarter ended December, 2011 Q3 net at Rs 613 crore. The stock jumped 2.3% to end at Rs 1,900.

Smart Movers

VIP Industries zoomed 11% to Rs 109 in noon deals, extending its Wednesday's 5% rally, after a foreign institutional investor acquired almost 5% stake in the company through bulk deal on Wednesday.

Steelcast soared 12% to Rs 120 levels (52-week high of Rs 128) after the company said it is getting ready to tap the huge multi-billion dollar US Railways demand for castings.

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Reliance Capital surged 3.7% at Rs 330 on reports that the company is expected to announce 26% stake sale in mutual fund arm, Reliance Asset Management Company to Japan's Nippon Life Insurance Company for about 20 billion yen today.

The broader markets also ended higher, The BSE mid-cap index added 1.4% to close at 5,670 levels and the small-cap index added 76 points to 6,272 levels.

The overall breadth was extremely positive as 1,809 stocks advanced while 982 declined.