Indian equities extend boisterous performance in noon trades

Indian equity markets continued to rally enthusiastically in Tuesday afternoon trades as the frontline indices kept gaining steam in line with other Asian peers. Benchmarks tested the psychological 4,850 (Nifty) and 16,100 (Sensex) levels in the session and are currently trading just below those levels with over one and half a percent gains. The key gauges finally managed to pierce the 4,780 (Nifty) and 16,900 (Sensex) levels which time and again proved as tough nuts to crack for the indices despite repeated attempts to claw beyond those levels. Investors took to hefty across the board bottom fishing after the four previous session of consolidation. After getting a slew of unexpectedly encouraging US economic reports, market participants across the globe appeared hopeful that the fourth quarter’s corporate earnings from top US companies would be impressive. However, upside in the domestic markets was limited as cautiousness crept in after investors’ focus shifted to upcoming sovereign bond auctions in Europe and a European Central Bank policy meeting. Meanwhile, European futures indicated that the markets there would rebound after retreating to one week lows in the previous session. Moreover, all the Asian markets exhibited sanguine trends with the Chinese benchmark which were outperforming all its peers by surging around over two and half a percent. Back home, on the BSE sectoral front, the rate sensitive Realty index led the gainers with close to three percent gains followed by the beaten down Capital Goods counter which jumped over two percent. Though there appeared no sectoral laggards some individual names like Tata Power and TCS languished in the negative terrain with moderate cuts.

Moreover, the broader markets fervently rallied to garner significant gains and even outperformed their larger peers. The bourses jumped on good volumes of over Rs 0.50 lakh crore. The market breadth on BSE was dominantly in favor of advances in the ratio of 1949:606 while 78 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,067.54 up by 252.82 points or 1.60% after trading as high as 16,111.12 and as low as 15,898.32. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.77% and Small cap soared 2.16%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Realty up 2.94%, Capital Goods up 2.31%, Bankex up 2.27%, Metal up 2.08% and Auto up 2.04% were the major gainers while there were no losers in the space.

Mahindra & Mahindra up 3.33%, SBI up 3.17%, ICICI Bank up 2.85%, Hindalco up 2.76% and BHEL up 2.71% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Tata Power down 0.37% and TCS down 0.27% were the only losers in the index.

Meanwhile, in order to get the natural gas, currently supplied to non-core users like refineries and steel plants, re-allocated to core sectors, the Association of Power Producers (APP) have requested the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to consider discontinuing gas to non-core sectors and utilize the same for core sectors like power and fertilizer. Private power producers informed that over 18 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of natural gas is presently being supplied to non-priority sectors.

The private electricity generators are awaiting gas allocation by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM) as gas-based power projects with a generation capacity of about 4,000 MW are ready to commence power generation before March 31, 2012. The association also underscored the fact that public money in the form of debt provided by various Indian banks and financial institutions is at a grave risk unless these projects start commercial operation by March 31, 2012. Private power producers’ association is also of the belief that around 80 mmscmd of gas can be released for allocating to upcoming projects provided the capacity utilization of all power plants is rationalized at around 60 percent.

At a time when India’s power industry is going through a challenging period and availability of gas is also becoming scant due to the sharp and constant reduction in gas throughout from refining major Reliance Industries, there is urgent need of government interventions and swift decision making in order to avoid idling of capacity. With the country’s overall gas based power capacity amounting to 16,600 MW, the total consumption of gas by these plants currently stands at 66 mmscmd with an average capacity utilization of around 70 percent.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,821.25, higher by 78.45 points or 1.65% after trading as high as 4,833.15 and as low as 4,768.25. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were R Infra up 3.85%, M&M up 3.72%, Axis Bank up 3.70%, Sesa Goa up 3.45% and SBI up 3.33%.

Ranbaxy down 0.74%, Grasim down 0.46%, Tata Power down 0.43% and TCS down 0.23% were the only losers on the index.

Asian markets traded on an optimistic note; Shanghai Composite surged 2.62%, Hang Seng climbed 0.88%, Jakarta Composite gained 0.77%, Nikkei 225 added 0.38%, Straits Times soared 1.01%, Seoul Composite jumped 1.46% and Taiwan Weighted amassed 1.21%.