Markets witness range-bound session; rupee below 57/$ level

Indian equity markets edged marginally higher on late morning session, after opening on a listless note and moving in a tight band amid some stock specific buying. The benchmarks were witnessing a range bound session. On the sectoral front, banks, oil and healthcare stocks were on buying spree, while FMCG, metal, consumer durables and information technology sectors remained quite. In currency market, Indian rupee fell below 57-level against the US dollar as investors were still cautious to make any strong position as  government’s measures to prop up the currency lacked conviction. On the global front, most of the Asian shares were traded lower. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,215 shares on the gaining side against 1,015 shares on the losing side while 143 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex, after touching a high and low of 16,929.19 and 16,841.13 respectively, is currently trading up by 38.26 points or 0.23% at 16,920.42. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declining ones on the index.

Conversely, broader indices pared gains; BSE Mid cap index gained 0.39%, while Small cap index was holding up in green by 0.18%.

Oil & Gas up by 0.84%, Power up by 0.69%, Bankex up by 0.69%, Health Care up by 0.62% and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) up by 0.61% were the top gaining sectoral indices on 30 scrip sensitive index of BSE. On the flip side, Fast Moving Consumer Goods down by 0.57%, Consumer Durable down by 0.31%, Metal down by 0.11% and Information Technology down by 0.01% remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral chart.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.97%, Gail India up by 1.86%, ONGC up by 1.70%, TCS up by 1.62% and Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.20%.

On the flip side, HUL down by 1.89%, Infosys down by 1.05%, Tata Steel down by 1.31%, Sterlite Industries down by 0.66% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.50% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with the Islamic nation arranging shipping and insurance in the wake of European sanctions, the government has allowed conditional import from Iran on cost, insurance and freight (CIF) basis for six months starting July 1, 2012 or till the issue is resolved. India, which has secured a waiver from US sanctions which prohibits import of crude oil from Iran in an attempt to check Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

European sanctions, which were announced earlier this year prohibits euro-based insurance companies from providing insurance and guarantees for transportation of oil from Iran, which has compelled many nations to reduce their oil imports from Iran. Around 90 percent of world’s tanker fleet is covered by western based protection and indemnity club, which includes personal protection and environmental cleanup claims.

As a result to this sanction, the oil ministry has proposed Iranian entity to export oil in their own ships so as to free the importer to get insurance cover for the ship and the oil. The shipping ministry has also taken up this matter with the finance ministry. Further, the oil ministry is also looking for finance ministry’s intervention to get state-owned General Insurance Corp (GIC) to provide insurance cover to domestic ships carrying oil from Iran.

The government might itself provide insurance to ships carrying crude if all other option closes. India has reduced import of oil from Iran from 18.5 million tons in 2010-11 to 17.44 million tons in 2011-12 and further down to 15.5 million tons in this fiscal. Unlike private refineries, state owned oil companies need permission from the government to import oil on cost, insurance & freight basis, which requires the seller to arrange for the carriage of goods by sea.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,125.25, up by 10.60 points or 0.21%. The index touched a high and low of 5,130.95 and 5,102.30 respectively. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Gail India up by 1.99%, ONGC up by 1.94%, Tata Power up by 1.75%, Bank of Baroda up 1.66% and TCS up by 1.44%.

On the flip side, HUL down by 1.97%, HCL Technologies down by 1.68%, SAIL down by 1.56%, Infosys down by 1.12% and Tata Steel down by 1.04%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity markets were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.04%, KLSE Composite dropped 0.30%, Nikkei plunged 0.81%, Strait Times slid 0.16%, Kospi Composite Index shed 0.41% and Taiwan Weighted lost 0.40%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite up by 0.25% and Hang Seng up 0.42%.were the top gainers amongst the Asian pack.