Sensex rises 139 points, Nifty at 11,690; Tata Motors, TCS rally

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by gains in Tata Group heavyweights Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata Motors, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended higher on Monday in line with global peers.

TCS alone contributed more than half of the pointwise gain. The rise in TCS was on the back of strong March quarter results. TCS posted its best revenue in 15 quarters on Friday.

Indian Meteorological Department's forecast of a near-normal monsoon for 2019 came as a pleasant surprise for the market.

The BSE benchmark Sensex rose 138.73 points or 0.36 per cent to 38,905.84 while NSE Nifty settled at 11,690.35, up 46.90 points or 0.40 per cent.

The advance-decline ratio on the BSE leaned in favour of the buyers.

Market Bulletin:
In the 30-pack index, 19 stocks ended in the green with 11 in the red. Tata Motors with a rise of 7.04 per cent was the best Sensex performer, followed by TCS, Coal India, Tata Steel and Hero MotoCorp.

Meanwhile Infosys was the worst laggard. The scrip declined 2.83 per cent following March quarter results. Lower-than-expected margin guidance for FY20 remained a major concern for most analysts covering the stock.

BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices outperformed Sensex, rising 0.49 per cent and 0.62 per cent respectively.

Barring oil & gas and energy, all other indices settled with gains. Metals hogged the limelight with a rise of 2.24 per cent. Realty too gained 1.57 per cent to be the second-best index performer.

Factors:

>Global cues
Progress in the US-China trade talks helped propel world stock markets to a 6-month high on Friday and steered investors away from safe havens such as Japanese yen. In early European trades, the pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures, German DAX futures and London's FTSE futures each rose about 0.1 percent, Reuters reported.

> Gains in TCS
Driven by strong March quarter results India's biggest IT fim TCS gained as much as 4.78 per cent and the biggest Sensex contributor point-wise. The scrip was responsible for 96 point rise out of 139 point gains in Sensex.

> Near normal monsoon
The Met forecast a near normal monsoon this year. The department said that Southwest monsoon was expected to be 96 per cent of Long Period Average. The IMD classifies rains at 96 per cent of the LPA as near normal.

Expert Take:
Market traded on a positive note as expectation of US-China trade agreement and a likely turnaround in domestic earnings steered the sentiment. IT index outperformed due to weak rupee and optimism in earnings growth. WPI inflation inched to 3.18% in March due to rise in food prices while IMD’s forecast of near normal monsoon may ease the concern over inflation
- Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services