Equities bank on Yes Bank results; Sensex rises 200 points

After a see-saw trade, equities rallied towards close led by advances in banking stocks Wednesday. Yes Bank’s better-than-expected fourth quarter results acted as a trigger, as it eased concerns banks may take a hit on account of forex derivative losses. Power and capital goods also firmed up in anticipation of good Q4 earnings.

However, analysts feel the market continues to be rangebound with no conclusive trend.

"The market is still directionless. The Nifty is stuck within a range of 4620-4900. The index needs to breakout on either side in order to conclude a specific trend. But what is interesting about today's session is that despite weak overseas markets, Indian equities managed to close higher. This was mainly on account of stock specific movement based on fourth quarter results. Result-based trigger will keep the market buoyant over the next few days," said independent technical analyst, Sachin Chavan.

Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex ended at 15,790.51, up 202.89 points or 1.3 per cent. It touched an intra-day high of 15,829.59 and low of 15,464.72.

National Stock Exchange's Nifty closed at 4747.05, up 0.79 per cent or 37.4 points. The index touched a high of 4758.25 and low of 4667.50 in day's trade.

Investor interest in second rung stocks drove the BSE Midcap and Smallcap Index 1.39 per cent and 1.62 per cent higher, respectively, outperforming the benchmarks.

Investors fancied banking stocks, sending BSE Bankex up 3 per cent. Yes Bank gained 4.65 per cent after the bank's March quarter net profit doubled to Rs 64.5 crore. The bank also said it had no writedowns due to forex derivative losses as at the end of March.

Biggest contributors to the Sensex rally were HDFC Bank (up 5.5%), HDFC (4.24%), BHEL (3.74%), Tata Steel (3.44%), ICICI Bank (2.86%), Reliance Energy (2.3%) and Larsen & Toubro (2.17%).

Hindustan Unilever (down 1.39%), Maruti Suzuki (1.44%), Bharti Airtel (1.04%), Tata Consultancy Services (0.98%), DLF (0.98%) disappointed.

Market breadth on BSE showed 1,829 advances and 794 declines. On NSE, there were 878 gainers and 355 losers.

Elsewhere in the region, Japan's Nikkei fell 1 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 1.35 per cent and Singapore's Straits Times declined 1.3 per cent.

Among European markets, FTSE 100was up 0.35 per cent, DAX 30 added 0.13 per cent and CAC 40 rose 0.04 per cent.