Indian equities gain strength; TECk, Bankex and IT leads

Indian equities added gains to continue its firm trade hovering near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on back of buying in frontline counters. Market participants chose to consolidate their positions above previous closing levels after the brutal over two percent laceration that the frontline indices suffered yesterday. Traders were seen piling up position in TECk, Bankex and IT sector while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables and Metal sector. However, markets lacked fervor due to lack of retail participation owing to a Gudi Padwa holiday while Banks, money and foreign exchange markets remained closed on this Maharashtrian New Year day. HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, PNB, SBI and Axis Bank from Banking counter was seen trading firm in green pulling the markets higher. TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies from IT pack were trading in green pushing the markets higher. Industry heavyweight RIL was seen trading firm with gain of around more than one percent giving the much needed support. On the other hand, Jindal Steel, Hindalco Industries and Sterlite Industries were seen trading in red exerting pressure on the market. On the global front, Asian markets were trading on a mix note while the European markets were trading in green on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,250 and 17,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 1342:1371 while 123 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,377.06 up by 180.59 points or 1.05% after trading as high as 17,382.94 and as low as 17,179.33. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a quiet note; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.36% while Small cap added 0.33%.

On the BSE sectoral space, TECk up 1.79%, Bankex up by 1.54%, IT up 1.43%, Realty up 1.39% and Power up 0.91% were the major gainers, while Consumer Durables down 0.78% and Metal down 0.46% were the only losers in the space.

Bharti Airtel up 4.97%, HDFC Bank up 2.47%, Hero MotoCorp up 2.43%, TCS up 1.85% and Gail India up 1.77%, were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Maruti Suzuki down 2.55%, Coal India down 1.67%, ONGC down 1.46%, Jindal Steel down 1.29% and Hindalco Industries down 1.24% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, increasing the use of natural gas is one of the most important and immediate ways of responding to the challenges of energy security facing India. India intends to increase its production and use and the government is committed to find a solution to the pricing mechanism of the industry. India also intends to promote greater flow of trade, investment, skills and services, across the gas-value-chain within the Asian region.

Speaking at the 7th Asia Gas Partnership Summit, Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, stated that natural gas is a clean answer to the energy requirements of India and the government is keen to step up its production. For doing so it realizes that the issues relating to its pricing being more remunerative and transparent are being considered. PM’s statements come at a time when Reliance Industries’ eastern offshore KG-D6 gas fields have seen output drop more than 40% to under 35 million standard cubic meters per day.

He further observed that emerging economies of Asia are increasingly using natural gas to meet their energy requirements with China and India leading the pack. As per the PM, the Asia Pacific region accounts for about 60% of world's total LNG imports and consumption in India has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 14%. Its import capacity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is also expected to rise to 20 million tonne by 2012-13.

Keeping in view the increased demand, India has stepped up its efforts to increase the domestic production of natural gas. Shale rock, which is one of the latest place that explorers are turning to for oil and gas, is extremely capital intensive and the PM intends to have a  shale gas licensing regime in place by next year. India has already attracted $14 billion in oil and gas exploration under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) and the 9th round of NELP has just been completed covering a sedimentary area of about 88,000 sq km. 

Australia and the Middle-East have already emerged as a principal source of gas supply in the Asia Pacific region and Singh has expressed his desire to move beyond the conventional buyer-seller relationships to more a comprehensive gas and energy partnership in the region. The Prime Minister has also informed that the government has launched an ambitious pipeline development programme and the target is to have a country-wide gas grid of about 30,000 km by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan in 2017.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,288.30, higher by 59.85 points or 1.14% after trading as high as 5,288.55 and as low as 5,220.00. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up 4.57%, JP Associates up 3.85%, Ambuja Cement up 3.66%, HDFC Bank up 2.73% and Cairn India up 2.54%.

Maruti Suzuki down 2.43%, Coal India down 1.40%, Jindal Steel down 1.40%, Hindalco Industries down 1.05% and ONGC down 0.96% were the major losers on the index.

In the Asian space, Jakarta Composite rose 0.13%, KLSE Composite added 0.10%, Straits Times advanced 0.28%, Seoul Composite gained 0.04% and Taiwan Weighted increased 0.21%. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite plunged 1.10%, Hang Seng sank 1.11% and Nikkei 225 plummeted 1.14%.

The European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 added 0.47%, Germany’s DAX ascended 0.44% while Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.40%.