Sensex ends 1 percent higher as rate-sesitive stocks surge

The Indian markets today extended gains as rate-sensitive stocks ended higher ahead of quarterly results this week and on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India will cut rates in its May policy.

After last’s week’s surge, the BSE Sensex ended almost a percent higher at 19169 while the NSE Nifty ended 0.89 percent higher at 5834, led by gains in realty and banking stocks.

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Realty stocks ended the session with solid gains: HDIL rose 12 percent, Unitech gained almost 9 percent while DLF rose 1.3 percent. Among banks, HDFC Bank ended up 3.6 percent, while ICICI Bank closed 1.8 percent higher.

Tata Motors also ended in green after unit Jaguar Land Rover Ltd’s China chief said it aims to increase its sales by 20-30 percent this year in China, its biggest market.

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However, shares in Wipro, India’s third-largest software services provider, fell 8 percent after it gave weaker-than-expected quarterly sales forecast on Friday.

Bulls went on a rampage on Dalal Street last week shrugging off a despondent mood in global markets as a slowdown in headline inflation boosted hopes of a rate cut in RBI’s next policy meet while sharp declines in crude and gold prices are expected to help narrow India’s current account deficit.

This week, among the Sensex companies, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Hero Motocorp, Maruti and JSPL are expected to announce their results.

Meanwhile, the government is likely to take a final decision on coal price pooling on April 22 by which the prices of domestic and imported coal are averaged to get a uniform price for the fuel in the country. Various thermal power plants in the country have been stranded due to scarcity of coal and the decision on coal price pooling will help these plants. However, the decision has been pending for a long time because of the conflict between the coal and power ministries on how the impact of higher imported coal prices will be shared between state miner Coal India (CIL) and power companies.