Markets witness jubilant run in early trade; Nifty just shy 5,500 mark

Sentiments continued to remain bullish for yet another day with benchmarks made gap-up opening ahead of the Railway Budget which is to be announced today. Globally, the US markets went for a rally touching their multi-year high overnight sparked by the dividend and stock buyback announcement from JPMorgan. The FOMC said that they have decided to keep the federal funds rate at zero to a quarter of a percent at least through late 2014. Moreover, all the Asian counters were trading in the green at this point of time. Back home, sustained buying in mostly all the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE’s -- Sensex -- and NSE’s -- Nifty -- to inch towards their crucial 18,000 and 5,500 mark respectively. Moreover, inflation numbers for the month of February will also keep gains in check. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI), eased to a two-year low of 6.6 percent year on year in January. The morning session trade was led by auto, capital goods, bank, healthcare, consumer durables and metal stocks while, there were no losers on the BSE sectoral space. Meanwhile, railway related stocks like Texmaco, BEML, Kalindee Rail, Siemens and Kernex Microsystems edged higher ahead of Railway Budget. The broader indices too were trading on a firm note. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,143 shares on the gaining side against 474 shares on the losing side while 71 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,003.15; about 190 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,813.62, and has touched a high and a low of 18,040.69 and 17,956.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,970.17, up by 156.55 points or 0.88%. There were 27 stocks advancing against only 3 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 67.71% stocks advancing against 28.08% declines. The broader indices too were trading on a firm note; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.67% and 0.54% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.52%, CG up by 1.36%, CD up by 1.35%, Metal up by 1.24% and Bankex up by 1.04%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were M&M up by 2.71%, ICICI Bank up by 2.30%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.04%, L&T up by 1.87% and Sun Pharma up by 1.53%. Meanwhile, TCS down by 1.06%, Wipro down by 0.74% and HDFC down by 0.06% remained the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government is working on a new policy to propel Indian aviation sector among top five markets in the world by providing access to safe and affordable air services with a strong regulatory framework and world-class infrastructure facilities, as per civil aviation minister Ajit Singh. The ministry will also consider the proposal to work out a separate air cargo policy as it is expected that 200 freighter aircraft will be required in the next 20 years to meet the industry’s demand.

The aviation industry is also keen that civil aviation be granted ‘infrastructure status’ and aviation turbine fuel be notified as declared goods (of special importance) with uniform central sales tax of only 4% across the country. Further, significant investments should be made in terms of construction of new airports, expansion and modernisation of existing ones, improvement in connecting infrastructure (road, metro and sea link) and better airspace management to help the aviation industry grow as airlines are expected to add 370 aircraft worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore by 2016-17.

As per the industry body ASSOCHAM, attracting domestic investments and easing norms on foreign direct investments are essential so that the sector can grow annually by 8% and also raise freight traffic from 23.5 lakh tonnes now to 70 lakh tonnes in the next ten years. It is also keen that land be demarcated for air cargo villages at airports or nearby regions to help raise freight traffic. Further cargo facilities at tier II and III cities as alternate growth centres should be developed.

ASSOCHAM has recently submitted an action plan to bail out the civil aviation sector from current financial crisis. Indian carriers catered to 5.4 crore domestic and 1.3 crore international passengers in 2010-11. But in spite of enormous growth and increasing trend towards moving to the low cost model, airlines suffered a loss of over Rs 20,000 crore in the past three years. 

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,490.55; about 61 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,429.50, and has touched a high and a low of 5,499.40 and 5,476.15 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,480.70, higher by 51.40 points or 0.95%. There were 46 stocks advancing against just 4 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 3.49%, M&M up by 2.73%, Sesa Goa up by 2.42%, ICICI Bank up by 2.30% and Sterlite Industries up by 2.20%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.03%, JP Associates down by 0.78%, Wipro down by 0.67% and HDFC down by 0.18% remained the only losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up 10.77 points or 0.44% to 2,466.56, Hang Seng was up 273.70 points or 1.28% to 21,613.40, Jakarta Composite was up 41.28 points or 1.03% to 4,049.92, KLSE Composite was up 9.53 points or 0.61% to 1,573.55, Nikkei 225 was up 177.53 points or 1.79% to 10,076.61, Straits Times was up 33.98 points or 1.14% to 3,023.05, Seoul Composite was up 26.16 points or 1.29% to 2,051.20 and Taiwan Weighted was up 87.18 points or 1.09% to 8,118.69.