Benchmarks make gap up opening on positive global cues

The Indian equity markets have made a gap up start tracking positive cues from global indices. Overnight, the Dow rose after oil prices dropped on rumors that Europe will delay an embargo on Iran while, markets in Asia advanced today after Italy and Spain were able to successfully auction their bonds, signaling some degree of investor confidence in their economies. Back home, sustained buying in mostly all the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE’s -- Sensex -- and NSE’s -- Nifty -- to regain their crucial 16,100 and 4,850 mark respectively. Metal witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by power and realty while, there were no losers on the BSE sectoral space. Meanwhile, metal stocks like NMDC, Coal India, SAIL and Hindalco edged higher in the trade as LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, rose 2.16% to settle at $3,498.60 on January 12, 2012. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,154 shares on the gaining side against 362 shares on the losing side while 43 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,144.57; about 107 points higher compared to its previous closing of 16,037.51, and has touched a high and a low of 16,168.99 and 16,107.13 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 16,113.62, up by 76.11 points or 0.47%. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 74.02% stocks advancing against 23.22% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.99% and 0.95% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.65%, Power up by 1.51%, Realty up by 1.23%, PSU up by 1.22% and CG was up by 1.11%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.16%, Coal India up by 2.09%, Jindal Steel up by 1.93%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.76% and Tata Power up by 1.69%.

On the flip side, Bajaj Auto was down by 0.71%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.70%, HDFC was down by 0.69%, GAIL was down by 0.56% and HDFC Bank was down by 0.30% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with India’s industrial production growth convalescing from a revised -4.7 percent in October to close to 6 percent in November, the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has taken the opportunity to affirm that this expectantly signals an end to the economic slowdown and exuded confidence that it would help improve the business sentiment in the country.

Ahluwalia stated that 'clearly, the industrial growth of almost 6 percent is a good change... I think it hopefully indicates that the slowdown in industry will basically come to an end during the third quarter of the financial year.' Along with the strong IIP numbers, a string of other recent encouraging developments from the macroeconomic front have made the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman hopeful that this must lead to improvement in sentiments over the next several weeks.

A slew of indicators like manufacturing and services PMI signaling expansion, the food inflation languishing in the negative terrain since the last fortnight of 2011, rupee strengthening to one month highs, declining bond yields and foreign direct investment surging around 56 percent in November 2011, have together signaled that India’s economic activity is re-gathering momentum.

Despite being hopeful that the encouraging IIP figures could signal an end to slowdown, the Deputy Chairman was of the belief that this will not change the whole picture for 2011-12 and that the GDP growth in current fiscal will be around 7 percent and not 8 percent but a lot depends on how the last quarter of the fiscal turns out to be.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,861.95; about 30 points higher compared to its previous closing of 4,831.25, and has touched a high and a low of 4,868.35 and 4,849.10 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,849.35, higher by 18.10 points or 0.37%. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Infra up by 2.55%, SAIL up by 2.24%, Tata Power up by 2.23%, Coal India up by 2.10% and Tata Motors up by 2.09%.

On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.27%, HDFC down by 0.89%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.70%, GAIL down by 0.44% and HDFC Bank down by 0.42%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Jakarta Composite was up 13.25 points or 0.34% to 3,922.75, Nikkei 225 was up 93.72 points or 1.12% to 8,479.31, Straits Times was up 23.52 points or 0.86% to 2,767.18, Seoul Composite was up 9.46 points or 0.51% to 1,874.03 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 16.33 points or 0.23% to 7,202.91.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down 40.20 points or 1.77% to 2,234.81 and Hang Seng was down by 5.92 points or 0.03% to 19,089.46.