Benchmarks witness strong pull back on supportive global cues

After witnessing three days of continuous down fall Indian equities have made a strong pull back aided by positive global cues post bullish US housing and employment data. The unemployment benefits in US rose for the first time in four weeks, but the trend still pointed to a steady decline in layoffs moreover, most of the Asian peers trading in the green too supported the sentiments. On the domestic front, sustained buying in almost all key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE’s -- Sensex -- and NSE’s -- Nifty -- to trade comfortably over their crucial 15,600 and 4,650 mark respectively. Meanwhile, Power Finance Corporation, National Thermal Power Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation are trading with decent gains on the buzz of launching medium- to long-term infrastructure bonds in the first week of January to raise 3,000-5,000 crore each. Among the sectoral indices, auto, banking, realty, public sector undertaking and metal space provided strength to the markets, while there was no loser on the index. Of 1,537 stocks traded, 909 advanced, 586 declined and 42 remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 15,583.55; about 40 points higher compared to its previous closing of 15,543.93, and has touched a high and a low of 15,694.05 and 15,575.08 respectively. The index is currently trading at 15,666.87, up by 122.94 points or 0.79%. There were 28 stocks advancing against just 2 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 59.14% stocks advancing against 38.14% declines. The broader indices too were trading with decent gain; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.55% and 0.34% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.22%, Bankex up by 0.89%, Realty up by 0.89%, PSU up by 0.86% and Metal was up by 0.85%. While, there were no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 1.68%, Tata Motors up by 1.59%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.47%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.35% and Jaiprakash Associates was up by 1.32%. While Hindustan Unilever down by 0.28% and Jindal Steel down by 0.26% remained the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, after prohibiting seven companies from participating in securities market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman UK Sinha opined that the entire process for initial public offering of shares is being reviewed while the volatility on the listing day is also being looked at. The regulator is also mulling over the idea of shortening timeline for entire IPO process.

The avowal from SEBI Chairman has after seven companies including PG Electroplast, Brooks Laboratories, RDB Rasayans, Taksheel Solutions, Tijaria Polypipes, Onelife Capital Advisors and Bharatiya Global Infomedia, which recently raised funds in initial public offers, were banned by the regulator for IPO rule violations.  SEBI also banned six investment bankers involved with such issues.

The securities market regulator citied reasons like misuse of IPO proceeds, pricing irregularities and inadequate disclosure of information for banning the entities. SEBI took swift action against the entities in order to send out a clear warning in the market that meddling with rules will be subject to serious action.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,659.95; about 13 points higher compared to its previous closing of 4,646.25, and has touched a high and a low of 4,690.45 and 4,657.35 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,683.20, higher by 36.95 points or 0.80%. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sesa Goa up by 2.31%, RCom up by 2.13%, ICICI Bank up by 1.81%, Tata Motors up by 1.79% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.52%.

On the flip side, Grasim down by 1.01%, Kotak Bank down by 0.84%, GAIL down by 0.37%, HUL down by 0.33% and Sun Pharma down by 0.27% remained the top losers on the index.

Most of he Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up 17.90 points or 0.82% to 2,191.46, Hang Seng was up 68.07 points or 0.37% to 18,465.99, Jakarta Composite was up 8.29 points or 0.22% to 3,817.07 and Nikkei 225 was up by 32.92 points or 0.39% to 8,431.81.  On the flip side, Straits Times was down 6.51 points or 0.24% to 2,666.27 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 18.97 points or 0.27% to 7,055.85.