Sensex ends 17.5% up in Apr series; all sectoral indices up

The benchmark indices rallied smartly on the back of positive global cues and ended the session as well as April series on a strong note. This uptrend was supported by technology, oil & gas, metal, rate sensitives and infrastructure stocks followed by midcaps and smallcaps. The Sensex surpassed the 11,400 level while the Nifty closed above the 3450 level; both the indices recovered all of Tuesday's losses.
The 30-share BSE Sensex shut shop at 11,403.25, with a gain of 401.50 points or 3.65% over previous close, and ended this truncated week with a gain of 0.65%. The 50-share NSE Nifty surged 3.32% or 111.60 points, to settle at 3,473.95 and lost 0.2% this week.
Leading heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, Bharti, Infosys, ICICI Bank, NTPC, BHEL, SBI, TCS, Wipro, HUL and HDFC gained 2.5-9%.
The Sensex ended the April series with 17.5% gain while the Nifty surged 15% from the closing of March series, which were at 9708.50 and 3020.95, respectively. But the experts are cautious for the May series.

R Venkat Subramanium, Head-Alternate Investments Group, Kotak Securities, said he would be extremely cautious while stepping into the May series.
Ajay Loganadan, Head-Investment Advisory Group Private Banking, HSBC Private Banking also said, "We have got enough uncertainty in May, one is election results; secondly on May 4 we get the stress test result from the global banks. Today’s news was that 6 out of 19 will need additional capital. So there is some amount of uncertainty given the month ahead."
Indian markets are closed on Thursday and Friday.
On the sectoral front, the BSE IT Index was up 5% and the Bankex shot up 4.5%. The Oil & Gas Index went up 3.5%. Power, Auto, Metal, Realty and Capital Goods indices gained 2-3%.
Volumes increased as compared to previous session but did not cross Rs 1 lakh crore mark. Total traded turnover was at Rs 99,710.81 crore. This included Rs 15,501.44 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 80,063.40 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 4,145.97 crore from BSE cash segment.
Global markets also bounced back in today's trade. At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading higher. The FTSE went up 45 points, to 4,141. The CAC was trading at 3,094, up 43 points and the DAX rose 48 points, to 4,655.
Among the US futures, the Dow Jones futures were trading at 8,043, up 76 points and the Nasdaq futures went up 12.25 points, to 1,372.75.
Asian markets rallied strongly; Shanghai, Hang Seng, Seoul Composite and Jakarta Composite gained 2.76-3%. Straits Times was up 2.28% and Taiwan Weighted rose 0.31%. Nikkei shut today.