BSE Sensex gains 135 points, Nestle India up over 4 per cent

Domestic equity markets rose on Tuesday, snapping a two-day losing streak, as window-dressing at the end of the month and the quarter propped up shares even as overall sentiment remained weak because of continued concerns about a Greek default.

The broader Nifty rose 0.6 per cent, while the benchmark BSE Sensex gained 0.49 per cent.

Among the Nifty stocks, Zee Entertainment, Idea Cellular, Tata Steel, Coal India and UltraTech Cement stood the top performers with gains of 3.72 per cent, 3.59 per cent, 3.37 per cent, 3.19 per cent and 3.14 per cent, respectively. However, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Gail and ICICI Bank declined by 1.46 per cent, 1.38 per cent, 1.29 per cent, 1.17 per cent and 1.03 per cent, respectively, and stood at the bottom of the performance chart.

Barring the BSE IT index (down 0.83 per cent) and BSE TECk (down 0.26 per cent), rest all other sectoral indices on the Bombay Stock Exchange ended in green. The BSE Healthcare index gained the most - 2.11 per cent to 16,564.32, followed by BSE FMCG index (up 2.02 per cent to 7,789.06), BSE Consumer Durables index (up 1.9 per cent to 10,745.62) and BSE Metal index (up 1.73 per cent to 9,335.29).

Gaurav Jain, director, Hem Securities, says, "Under the fear clouds of Greece debt payment default; domestic benchmarks bounced back on the hopes of not much direct impact of it on the country. Late hour rise was also on the back of short coverings. FMCG, and select oil, pharma and metals stocks supported the market whereas technology, private banks and select auto stocks lost ground."

The Nifty fell 0.77 per cent for the month, which was marked by a second consecutive monthly sales by foreign investors. That sent the index down 1.44 per cent for April-June, the first quarterly fall since July-September 2013 when India was in the midst of a currency crisis.

Sensex fell 0.17 per cent in June and declined 0.63 per cent for the April-June quarter.

"Slowly many companies are coming forward and giving poor guidance. This quarter, like previous few, may not be great," said Aneesh Srivastava, chief investment officer at IDBI Federal Life Insurance.

Sun Pharmaceutical rose 2.89 per cent on Tuesday after Credit Suisse said the company has raised prices of drugs at its unit Ranbaxy Laboratories.

Software exporters led losses with TCS and Tech Mahindra declined 1.59 per cent and 1.27 per cent, respectively. HCL Technologies fell 1.09 per cent.

Among day's major market moving events, Nestle India rallied 4.6 per cent in the day's trading session after the High Court allowed it to export is India-banned product Maggi. In another stock specific event, Deep Industries rallied more than 13 per cent in the day after market news that it has signed a contract from ONGC worth Rs 278 crore for hiring of gas dehydration systems.
Hiren Dhakan, associate fund manager, Bonanza Portfolio, said, "Globally the markets are keenly watching the developments in Greek economy, especially the July 5 referendum that would decide the acceptance or decline of creditor norms for a possible bailout."

 (With inputs from Reuters)