Stocks end 2016 with 3% gains; volatility, black swan events dominate
Fresh buying into front line shares and continued covering of short positions helped markets to end higher for the 4th…
Stocks staged a spectacular rally on Thursday as a late bout of strong short covering helped markets to close above a crucial support level. Bulls were back in control as mid caps, metals and auto shares jumped smartly.
The Nifty ended 69 points higher at 8,104 points on the last day of the monthly expiry of futures and options contracts. The index closed with gains for the third session. Prior to that the Nifty had fallen for 9 out of the previous 11 sessions and, as a consequence, built a huge amount of short positions into the system. These positions had to be squared off by Thursday, therefore, explaining the surge in the index in the last half hour of trade.
Here are the major events of the trading day:
Advertisement
* The Nifty sidesteps weakness in Europe and Asia. Rises 0.9 pct on expiry day to be the best performing index.
* Grasim, Bosch, BPCL, Ambuja Cement and TCS rise 1.4-2.1 per cent and are among 41 gainers on the Nifty.
* Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Sun Pharma and State Bank drop 0.5-1.7 per cent, and are among 9 losers on the Nifty.
* The Sensex added 140 points to end the day at 26,351 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Maruti was the top gainer; Sun Pharma was the top traded stock and Adani Ports lost the most.
* Broader market indices rise between 1-1.1 per cent; Mid caps were the flavour of the day, up 1.9 per cent.
* All sectoral indices, except for the Pharma benchmark, rose smartly. Gains ranged between 0.8-1.6 per cent.
* Bharat Financial, Divi's Labs and ITC were the top traded stocks by value.
* IFCI, IDFC and IDFC Bank were the top traded shares by volume.
* The bulls were back in the driver's seat on Dalal Street with 1,672 shares rising versus 906 that fell.
* Sentiment was fairly upbeat in the derivatives market where the last day of the monthly expiry of futures and options contracts panned out. 149 futures rose versus 29 that fell.
* Futures of Page Industries, IDFC, Karnataka Bank and Voltas showed sustained uptrend.
* Divi's Labs, Oriental Bank, Union Bank and IB Real Estate Futures slipped in trade.
Advertisement
