Benchmarks make firm opening; Sensex recaptures 17,000 mark

The Indian equity markets have made a firm start led by some bottom fishing after yesterday’s sharp fall of over 100 points. However, global cues remained mixed as US markets closed lower on the back of continued uncertainty in Europe but Asian markets recovered after a weak start. Back home, sustained buying in mostly all the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE’s -- Sensex -- and NSE’s -- Nifty -- to trade comfortably over their crucial 17,000 and 5,100 mark respectively. On the sectoral front, banking, realty and oil and gas remained the top gainers while there was no loser on the index. In the large-cap space, SBI was up about 3% as the government agreed to infuse up to Rs 7,900 crore via preferential allotment share issue. PNB moved up 2.40% as the bank approved issue of preferential shares to Govt. Moreover, index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) up by over 1.50% as the company’s share buyback program starts from February 1, 2011. The broader indices were going neck to neck with benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,102 shares on the gaining side against 454 shares on the losing side while 63 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,965.58; about 102 points higher compared to its previous closing of 16,863.30, and has touched a high of 17,058.27 while low remained its opening.

The index is currently trading at 17,042.42, up by 179.12 points or 1.02%. There were 25 stocks advancing against just 5 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 68.07% stocks advancing against 28.04% declines. The broader indices were trading in line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.98% and 0.91% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 2.00%, Realty up by 1.47%, Oil and Gas up by 1.32%, IT up by 1.22% and CD up by 1.21%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.78%, ICICI Bank up by 2.24%, RIL up by 1.60%, DLF up by 1.56% and TCS was up by 1.52%.

On the flip side, Coal India was down by 1.85%, HUL was down by 1.18%, NTPC was down by 0.99%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.67%  and Cipla was down by 0.38% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in an effort to boost agricultural production and bring about a ‘second green revolution’ in the eastern states, the government has released Rs 332.87 crore to seven states in the current financial year (2011-12) as on January 01, 2012. For the sub-scheme under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Rs 400 crore has been earmarked for this year. The programme targets improvement in the rice based cropping system in the selected states.

Eastern India with 2-3 times more rainfall compared to the Northwest States, unexploited good quality ground water aquifers, and vast resources of social capital have relative advantage for sustainable production of rice, banana, sugarcane and aquaculture. The agricultural productivity in this region is comparatively low in spite of the adequate availability of natural resources required for higher production. The scheme is aimed at increasing crop productivity of the region by intensive cultivation through promotion of recommended agricultural technologies and package of practices.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had recently urged the States to submit proposals to benefit from the funds allocated for the purpose. He said that he had allotted funds for the states in its Union Budget but the state governments had not utilized them properly. Since the onus of the implementation of such projects lay with the state governments, it was their prerogative to submit appropriate proposals and benefit from it.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,125.25; about 38 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,087.30, and has touched a high and a low of 5,149.75 and 5,120.15 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,141.75, higher by 54.45 points or 1.07%. There were 44 stocks advancing against just 6 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SBI up by 3.06%, Axis Bank up by 2.40%, PNB up by 2.38%, IDFC up by 2.30% and ICICI Bank up by 2.15%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.80%, HUL down by 1.19%, NTPC down by 0.96%, Grasim down by 0.66% and Siemens down by 0.57%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up 4.39 points or 0.19% to 2,289.42, Hang Seng was up 144.07 points or 0.71% to 20,304.48, Nikkei 225 was up 27.24 points or 0.31% to 8,820.29, Seoul Composite was up 9.00 points or 0.46% to 1,949.55 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 43.33 points or 0.58% to 7,450.74.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down 0.91 points or 0.02% to 3,914.25 and Straits Times was down by 11.00 points or 0.38% to 2,877.29.