Markets hold early gains; realty and metal top gainers

Indian equity markets holding early gains subsequent to impressive surge in global markets amid easing doubts about the European economy on the back of reports that the International Monetary Fund is planning to substantially expand its lending resources to offset the debt crisis in the euro zone. Strong inflow of funds from foreign institutional investors also supported domestic markets in a large extent. Meanwhile, on sectoral front strong gains were posted by bank, metal, oil, capital goods and automobile stocks, while TECk and IT stocks were limiting the local shares’ gains. Shares of India's biggest two-wheeler makers Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto rallied 2.4% and 0.8%, respectively, ahead of their third quarter results. On global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, the market breadth favoring the positive trend; there were 1,552 shares on the gaining side against 785 shares on the losing side while 98 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,605.42, up by 153.95 points or 0.94%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16662.06 and 16573.42 respectively. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in tandem with the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.20% while the small cap index was trading up by 1.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.23%, Metal up by 2.02%, Power up by 1.82%, Bankex up by 1.63% and Auto up by 1.44%.

On the flip side IT down by 0.45% and TECk down by 0.43% were the only two laggards in the sectoral space.

The top gainers of the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.50%, DLF up by 3.36%, NTPC up by 3.34%, Hindalco Inds up by 3.19% and Sterlite Inds up by 3.01%.

On the other hand BHEL down by 1.92%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.99%, Cipla down by 0.86%, Infosys down by 0.83% and Wipro down by 0.56% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, decline in prices of food items, such as fruit and vegetables have brought the consumer price index (CPI) down by 0.44% m-o-m in December 2011. As per the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, based on retail prices, the CPI stood at 113.9 points in December compared with 114.4 points in November. Further, numbers were released separately for the urban, rural areas and combined showed a fall of 0.78%, 0.09% and 0.44% respectively on m-o-m basis.

As depicted by the numbers, the fall was more in the rural areas than the urban. The fall was mainly on account of cheaper vegetables which saw a dip of 15.01% m-o-m to 98.5 points. The fruit index also fell by 3.78% to 122.2 points. Similarly, the index for condiments and spices fell by 1% to 123.9 points. At the all-India level, the CPI for 'food, beverages and tobacco' in December fell by 1% to 112.8 points from 114.3 points in the previous month.

In December, the CPI for 'clothing, bedding and footwear' stood at 122.2 points on an all-India basis, compared to 121.5 points in November, an increase of around 1%.  In addition, the prices in the 'fuel and light' segment rose marginally in December vis-a-vis the previous month, with the index moving up to 120.0 points from 119.6 points in November.

The index for 'Housing' in December stood at 112.2 points, up by 1.17% m-o-m basis from 110.9 points in November. This is the sixth month that housing prices were factored into the CPI data. However, the data was compiled only for urban areas. The government earlier said house rent was negligible for the rural areas, and as such, only urban areas were taken into account for the index on housing. Further, the index for 'Miscellaneous' was flat at 112.8 points on a nationwide basis in the month under review, compared to 112.7 points in the previous month.

For the whole year, Kerala has seen the sharpest rise in prices among states with inflation from January-December at 16%. Union territories like Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and small state like Manipur have done the best to tame inflation with the hike being at less than 10%. The ministry also mentioned that the annual inflation rates would be available at the time of release of indices for January, 2012. The indices for January are scheduled to be released on February 21.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,005.25, up by 49.45 points or 1.00%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,014.85 and 4,991.40 respectively. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Infra up by 6.73%, Tata Power up by 4.24%, ACC up by 3.66%, JP Associates up by 3.59% and NTPC up by 3.34%.

On the other hand, BHEL down by 2.14%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.07%, Cipla down by 0.89%, Infosys down by 0.77% and Wipro down by 0.62% were the top losers on the index.

All the Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite was up by 1.03%, Hang Seng was up by 1.19%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.69%, Nikkei 225 surged by 1.04%, Straits Times gained 0.55% and Seoul Composite was up by 1.19%.

Markets in Taiwan remained close for a public holiday.