Benchmarks hold gains; ICICI bank top gainer

Indian equity markets dwelled in a positive territory amid sustained buying in several blue chip counters, following global cues. However, ICICI Bank was the top Sensex gainers, up by over 5% followed by SBI and HDFC Bank on expectations that the central bank will start cutting interest rates in the coming months after December headline inflation fell to a 2-year low of 7.47%. On sectoral front, banking sector extended gains may be reacting to the good performance showed by Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Consumer durables, automobile and metal stocks were also finding good support. Oil and healthcare stocks were slightly subdued. On global front, most Asian markets too maintained their upside following easing of funding worries in the Europe and better performance from US financial companies. Back home, the market breadth favoring the positive trend; there were 1,496 shares on the gaining side against 909 shares on the losing side while 123 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,761.80, up by 118.06 points or 0.71%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16,777.67 and 16,693.16 respectively. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 declines and one remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.99% while the small cap index was trading up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.61%, Consumer Durables (CD) up by 2.01%, Realty up by 1.55%, Power up by 1.27% and Capital Goods (CG) up by 0.96%.

On the flip side Health Care down by 0.37% and Oil & gas down by 0.37% were the only two laggards in the sectoral space.

The top gainers of the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 5.02%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.56%, Wipro up by 3.17%, Jindal Steel up by 2.78% and DLF up by 2.35%.

On the other hand Coal India down by 3.31%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.68%, M&M down by 1.21%, Reliance down by 0.40% and GAIL India down by 0.35% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India’s mineral production grew 4.27% higher in the month of November 2011 as compared to the preceding month according to the data released by ministry of mines. However, the data also showed that mining sector activity measured by the index of mineral production, registered negative growth of 4.44% during November as compared to that of the corresponding month of 2010. The recent decline in iron ore and coal production owing to ban in some key mining areas has become a major issue with mining ministry and companies.

Out of the six minerals which together contributed about 95% of the total value of mineral production in November 2011, the petroleum (crude) remained the highest contributor at Rs 5,567 crore which is 35% of Rs 15,692 crore, the total value of mineral production (excluding atomic & minor minerals) during the month under review. Coal production was next in the order of importance with a value of Rs 4,628 crore, which is around 29.49% of the total value followed by Iron Ore which contributed Rs 2,788 crore, around 18% of the total value. Natural gas (utilized), Lignite and Limestone contributed Rs 1,409 crore, Rs 301 crore and Rs 282 crore respectively which is around 9%, 2% and 2% of the total value correspondingly.

Among important minerals, production level for coal was the highest at 481 lakh tonnes registering an increase of coal 20.15% followed by lignite at 29 lakh tonnes, a growth of 9.32%. Production level of other important minerals in November 2011 were natural gas (utilized) 3764 million cu. m., petroleum (crude) 31 lakh tonnes, bauxite 1075 thousand tonnes, chromite 283 thousand tonnes, copper conc. 10 thousand tonnes, gold 108 kg., iron ore 121 lakh tonnes, lead conc. 14 thousand tonnes, manganese ore 171 thousand tonnes, zinc conc. 135 thousand tonnes, apatite & phosphorite 180 thousand tonnes, dolomite 413 thousand tonnes, limestone 199 lakh tonnes, magnesite 20 thousand tonnes and diamond 2047 carat.

In November 2011 the output of magnesite increased by 46.52%, diamond 38.22%, zinc conc. 19.44%, manganese ore 18.05%, chromite 11.60%, lead conc. 4.90%, gold 3.85%, dolomite 3.38%, bauxite 1.96 percent. However, the production of limestone decreased by 0.44%, copper conc. 2.56%, petroleum (crude) 4.13%, natural gas (utilized) 4.27%, apatite & phosphorite 5.49%, and iron ore 6.36%.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,049.30, up by 30.90 points or 0.62%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,054.60 and 5,025.30 respectively. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 4.90%, IDFC up by 4.15%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.66%, Axis Bank up by 3.21% and Wipro up by 3.11%.

On the other hand, Coal India down by 3.26%, Dr Reddy down by 3.25%, Reliance Power down by 1.92%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.77% and Ambuja Cement down by 1.37% were the top losers on the index.

All the Asian markets barring Jakarta Composite that was down by 0.71%, were trading in green; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.78%, Hang Seng was up by 0.52%, Nikkei 225 surged by 1.58%, Straits Times gained 0.97% and Seoul Composite was up by 1.57%.

Markets in Taiwan remained close for a public holiday.