After taking a day’s breather, markets today continued their upward journey with the benchmark BSE Sensex rebounding over 68 points while the Nifty edged up 15 points on buying in pharma, FMCG, banking and auto shares amid sustained foreign fund inflows.

In volatile movements, the 30-share BSE index opened firm at 29,436.77 and then improved to touch the day’s high of 29,518.32 in early trade. However, it slipped into the negative terrain on across-the-board profit-booking. Buying by participants in the last 30 minutes of trading helped the gauge bounce back to close 68.22 points, or 0.23 per cent, higher at 29,448.95.

Intra day, it had slipped to a low of 29,162.47 due to selling in metal, IT and capital goods, oil& gas scrips.

Yesterday, the Sensex lost 213 points on profit-booking after breaching the historic 30,000-mark to hit a lifetime high of 30,024.74 following a surprise rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In four straight trading sessions (February 27, 28, March 2 and 3), the Sensex had gained 847.08 points on the back of strong FII inflows following a growth-oriented Budget.

Market Outlook by Vinod Nair, Head-Fundamental Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services
As the market has moved high we are seeing sectoral shift towards defensive sectors like Pharma and FMCG. We believe this is a short-term direction, till the time action is taken for post budget measures (important bills in budget session). Having said that confidence continues to be good with increasing momentum in Mid and Small Cap.

Market Wrap Up by Alex Mathews, Head Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services
The markets rebounded in the last hour after slipping into negative territory in the first half on the back of profit booking. Investors took cautious stance and stayed sidelines ahead of long weekend. The Indian markets will remain closed tomorrow on account of Holi.
Nifty closed at 8937 up around 15 points.  The market breadth stood flat as there were seen 1411 stocks advancing against 1449 stocks declining. The Nifty volatility index, India VIX stood at 14.4375 down around 5%.
The Mid cap and small cap indices outperformed the markets, closed up around 0.70% and 0.62% respectively.
The major sectorial gainers for the day were Healthcare and FMCG which closed up around 2.78% and 1.16% respectively and the major loser was Metal sector which closed down around 2.16%.
In the stocks’ front, buying was seen in Sun Pharma and Lupin, closed up around 3.45% and 2.67% respectively and on the other end the sellers were Ultratech and NMDC which closed down around 4.06% and 4.03% respectively.
The FIIs were net buyers in the capital market segment, bought shares worth Rs 2786.24 crore on Wednesday, 04 March 2015. On the other hand the DIIs were also net buyers on 04 March 2014, bought shares worth Rs 16.89 crore as per the provisional data from the stock exchanges.
The European markets fell as the investors were waiting for the ECB’s policy meet. The US index futures were trading flat.

The 50-share NSE Nifty recovered 15.19 points, or 0.17 per cent, to close at 8,937.75 after shuttling between 8,957.55 and 8,849.35 intra-day. It had shed 73.60 points yesterday after touching its all-time high of 9,119.20.

The recovery in the Sensex and the Nifty was supported by gains in Sun Pharma that climbed 3.24 per cent, while Cipla surged 1.81 per cent. Hindustan Unilever surged 2.49 per cent and HDFC Bank rose 1.87 per cent among the Sensex gainers.

Other bluechip gainers which helped indices to close in positive zone were HDFC, Dr Reddy, M&M, Wipro and Axis Bank.

Shares of Reliance Infrastructure rose over 3 per cent after it announced acquisition of controlling stake in Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering for up to Rs 2,082.3 crore.

Stocks of steel companies, however, remained under selling pressure on continued profit-booking, brokers said. Hindalco suffered by the most by falling 3.69 per cent,

Tata Steel fell 1.57 per cent and Sesa Sterlite was down 1.51 per cent.

The broader markets also performed on revival of buying. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices rose up to 0.74 percent.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth a net Rs 2,786.24 crore yesterday.