“As expected, markets are still searching for direction and are unable to hold on to gains as there is selling pressure whenever share prices go up a little,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of the capital market arm of India's fourth largest share brokerage firm, the Delhi-based SMC Group.

1. Equities surge, Sensex up 280 points to cross 9,000
Mumbai | December 04, 2008 3:05:06 PM IST
Indian equities markets opened higher Thursday and after some initial volatility began to surge with a key
index moving up more than 280 points mid-afternoon to once again breach the psychologically important
9,000 mark.
The surge is probably in expectation of 100 basis points cuts in both the repo and reverse repo rates and
other stimulus package measures to be announced coming Saturday, said Jagannadham Thunuguntla,
head of the capital markets arm of India's fourth largest share brokerage firm, the Delhi-based SMC
Group.
Mid-afternoon, the 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was ruling at
9,027.71, up 280.28 points or 3.20 percent from its previous close Wednesday at 8,747.43 points.
The Sensex opened some 32 points higher at 8,779.02 points and except for a few minutes of staying in
the red to hit a low of 8,726.71 points continued to move up into positive territory to hit a high of
9,102.21 before sliding a bit to its current value.
The broader-based 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), also showed a
similar trend and mid-afternoon was ruling at 2730.20, up 73.75 points or 2.78 percent from its previous
close Wednesday at 2656.45 points.
Mid-afternoon the BSE midcap index was ruling at 2,876.99, up 46.40 points or 1.64 percent from its
previous close Wednesday at 2,830.59 points. The BSE smallcap index was ruling at 3,302.85, up 37.75
points or 1.16 percent from its previous close at 3,265.10 points.
Overnight US markets closed in the green with a key index of the New York Stock Exchange finishing
1.82 percent higher. The Nasdaq index closed 2.94 percent higher than its previous close Tuesday.
Asian markets were mixed with the Nikkei, key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange showing losses of
1.22 percent but the Hang Seng, key index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showing gains of 0.67
percent. All 13 sectoral indices were in the green with realty, capital goods, power and bank stocks being
the major gainers.
Among the stocks that make up the Sensex, Jaiprakash Associates, up 12.65 percent was the top gainer
followed by realty company DLF Ltd., up 9.33 percent.
Today's surge is likely to be temporary as even the stimulus package will take a very long time to start
having any impact so the overall situation remains negative, Thunuguntla said.