Benchmarks hold early gains; PSU, banking major leaders

The Indian equity benchmarks maintained their uptrend, supported by consistence buying across some blue chip counters and following major Asian markets moves, though the trade has turned a bit choppy. Markets rebounded after a fall in previous three sessions on the back of positive global cues post bullish US housing and employment data, while a sharp fall in Indian food inflation is also aiding sentiment to a notable extent. Meanwhile, in the currency market, the Indian rupee declined in early trades this morning as oil importers stepped up dollar buying. On the sectoral front all sectors were trading in green. Bank, IT, metal, auto and capital goods stocks were trading firm. On the global front markets in the Asia-Pacific region were trading in green. Back home, the market breadth remained positive; there were 1347 shares on the gaining side against 1009 shares on the losing side while 108 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 15,636.30, up by 92.37 points or 0.59%. The index has a touched a high and low of 15,694.05 and 15,575.08 respectively.  There were only 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were trading with a gain; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices edged higher 0.35% and 0.47% respectively.

The gainers on the index were PSU up 1.34%, Bankex up 0.70%, IT up 0.65%, Metal up 0.55% and Auto up 0.54% while there was the no loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.23%, HDFC up by 1.69%, ICICI Bank up 1.49%, JP Associates was up by 1.22% and TCS up by 1.00%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 0.80%, Bajaj Auto down 0.62%, HUL down 0.52%, M&M down 0.52% and DLF down 0.16% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to meet the internal demand of sugar for the month of January, 2012, the central government has earmarked 17.16 lakh tons of sugar. The government is of the belief that this quantity of 17.16 lakh tons will be adequate for sale in the open market and distribution through ration shops during the first month of 2012.

Out of the total quantity, 2.16 lakh tons will be for the public distribution system (PDS) also called levy sugar while the rest 15 lakh tons will be for sale in the open market also called non-levy sugar. The non levy sugar is further bifurcated into normal quota under which 14 lakh tons of sugar is allocated while the remaining one lakh ton is allotted to the section - availability on account of carryover quantity of unsold/undispatched non-levy sugar quota of December, 2011.

The Food Processing Industries ministry also stated that the sugar factory shall sell and dispatch the entire non-levy quantity released for the month of January, 2012 only within the validity period of the release order i.e. upto January 31, 2012. Besides, the ministry also extended the validity period for sale and dispatch of the non-levy sugar quota released for the month of December by 15 days till January 15, 2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,673.00, higher by 26.75 points or 0.58%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,690.45 and 4,657.35 respectively. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.26%, Sesa Goa up by 2.16%, RCOM up by 1.69%, Cairn up by 1.68% and Ranbaxy up by 1.63%.

On the flip side, Grasim down by 1.28%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.95%, HUL down 0.87%, Jindal Steel down 0.84% and BPCL down by 0.81% remained the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up 0.92%, Hang Seng was up 0.32%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.24 and Nikkei 225 was up by 0.67%.

On the flip side, Straits Times was down 0.39, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.04%.