Sensex, Nifty soar on short covering in F&O expiry, dip in oil prices; BPCL, JSW Steel, Torrent Power stocks gain

The stock market of India witnessed huge buying in the intraday trade on short covering by the traders ahead of their short position in the F&O, which is expiring this week and dip in the crude oil prices by around $2 at the WTI. The BSE Sensex shot up 311 points and closed at 39,434 while the 50-stock Nifty went up 96 points and closed at 11,796 levels. the index Bank Nifty rose 245 points after closing at 30,847 levels. IFCI, Torrent Power, Emami, India Cements and Manappuram Finance stocks were the top five profit making stocks while Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company and PC Jeweller stocks were the top five losing stocks in the intraday trade.

Speaking on the current market surge Prakash Pandey, Head of Research at Fairwealth Securities said, "This can be the beginning of the customary pre-budget rally but apart from this there are two factors that led to rise in Indian indices. Those two factors are short-covering by market investors ahead of the F&O expiry and crude oil prices nosediving around $2, which is good for the Indian economy as a slump in crude oil would help Indian government contain the fiscal deficit within their targets."

Standing in sync with Prakash Pandey's views Nagaraj Shetti – Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst, HDFC securities said, "Nifty witnessed a smart upside bounce today from near the key lower support of 11625-650 levels (which is near the previous upper gap area) and closed higher. We observe a formation of the long bull candle from near the support today, which signals an emergence of buying interest from near the supports." He said that the broader trend of the market is stuck within a high low range of 11800-11625 levels. Further up move from here is expected to find key overhead resistance around 11800-850 levels in the next 1-2 sessions.

Energy stocks led the bull run on Dalal Street in the intraday trade as the BSE Energy index rose over 2 per cent today. Energy major Adani Gas share price shot up 2.24 per cent, Bharat Petroleum Corporation surge 2.94 per cent, Deep Industries shares scaled 2.09 per cent, shares of HPCL jump 2.32 per cent, IOCL counter went northward 1.55 per cent, Mangalore Refinery And Petrochemicals scrip added 2.7 per cent while Reliance Industries aka RIL jump 2.63 per cent.

Metal stocks followed energy index closely as the BSE Metal index went up 1.74 per cent in the intraday trade. Metal major JSW Steel share price skyrocketed over 3 per cent, shares of Jindal Steel & Power jumped 2.4 per cent, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) counter added 2.44 per cent, Tata Steel shares went up 2.36 per cent, Vedanta stocks rose 1.1 per cent, Hindalco Industries scrip went up 2.2 per cent while Hindustan Zinc counter went 1.12 per cent northward.

Among the Asian markets, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index crashed 0.58 per cent, South Korean Kospi went down 0.22 per cent, Hang Seng dipped 1.15 per cent and Shanghai index nosedived 0.87 per cent.