The markets showed immense strength on the back of more than 9% growth in March ending on a positive note gaining as much as 17.46% on Sensex & 15% on Nifty during the April month.

The rally was driven by strong FII inflows in the month of April coupled with quarterly & yearly results which were better than expected. Firm Global markets were amongst the other driving factors behind the huge rally which also saw Midcaps gaining 18.86% & Small caps gaining 21.38% both outperforming the benchmark indices.

Sector Analysis

Amongst the sectoral indices, almost all the indices ended in green with Realty leading the pack with 36.5% gains on the back of expectations of picking up of demand due to property price corrections & a slew of rate cuts by RBI giving enough hints to all the banks to cut lending rates. Bankex was the other major gainer gaining 26.59% taking positives from the RBI rate cuts, followed by Capital Goods sector which gained 22.31%.

Metal sector gained 18.82% on the back of firming global prices for key metals. IT, Oil & Gas, Power, Auto, Health care & FMCG were the other indices which ended in green but underperformed the Sensex. IT gained 16.52% on the back of strong dollar & better than expected numbers of IT majors. Oil & Gas Gained 15.31% on the back of good numbers by the sector leader Reliance Industries followed by better expectations of future earnings on back of its merger with RPL. Auto sector continued its uptrend gaining 14.26% on back of strong performances of Sector leaders Maruti & Hero Honda. Healthcare & FMCG gained 8.40% & 2.89% respectively with none of the sectors closing in the red.

Fund Activity

The global recessionary trends seemed to slow down a bit. With all the world indices ending positive for the month of April 2009, the investor confidence seem to be reviving in the economies once again. In India, FII's selling spree finally came to an end after more than a year when they bought stocks worth Rs. 5,195 crores in the secondary markets. DII's, on the other hand, got a chance for some profit booking and thus were net sellers to the tune of Rs. 782 crores. Thus the secondary markets witnessed a net inflow of Rs. 4,413 crores on the institutional front.

International Markets

World over stock markets rallied on renewed optimism that the worst may be over and economic recovery may be in sight. Wall Street continued the up move and made its biggest monthly advance in the last nine years. Improving economic data from the USA reflects early sign of a recovery in the economy. Manufacturing in Europe declined at its slowest pace in six months, and grew in China and India in April, while pending sales of existing US homes rose unexpectedly in March and US construction spending rose a slim 0.3% the same month, its first increase since September. FTSE ended up 8.08% to 4243 for the month of April. Asian Development Bank (ADB) believes that the developing countries in Asia should be able to rebound from the global economic crisis and reach 6% growth next year. Hang Seng and Straits Singapore were up by 18.35% and 15.40% during the month. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average jumped by 7.5% to 8977. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed by 12.5% to 1719.