Sensex, Nifty hold early gains; Metal stocks leading rally

Indian equity markets hold early strength and currently trading with moderate gains amid lack of trigger from local as well as global markets. Investors were not making any strong positions due to monsoon woes and spike in brent crude oil prices. In currency markets, Indian rupee pared yesterday’s gains and currently trading lower, as American currency gaining against the euro overseas. On sectoral front, metal stocks extended gains as copper surged 2.5% yesterday on London Metal Exchange on hopes of monetary easing by central banks around the world. Few stocks from consumer durables, realty and auto sectors were also trading with good gains, while oil, IT and FMCG sectors were trading lower. In global markets, Asian shares too were trading in positive territory ahead of European Central Bank policy meeting on Thursday. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,551 shares on the gaining side against 906 shares on the losing side while 106 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,467.81, up by 42.10 points or 0.24%. The index has touched a high and low of 17,523.77 and 17,437.00 respectively. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 declines and one remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.79% and 0.71% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.88%, Consumer Durable up by 1.07%, Realty up by 0.95%, Auto up by 0.90% and Bankex up by 0.56%. While, Oil and Gas down by 0.69%, IT down by 0.38% and FMCG down by 0.30% remained the few losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up by 3.74%, Sterlite Industries up by 3.08%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.41%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.53% and Tata Steel up by 1.53%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.45%, Wipro down by 1.56%, Sun Pharma down by 0.93%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 0.91% and HUL down by 0.88% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India has risen to the 2nd position in the Global innovation Efficiency Index in 2012 from 9th position last year. The report is prepared taking into consideration 141 countries on the basis of their innovation capabilities. In the efficiency index countries which are strong in producing innovation in a weaker innovation environment are ranked higher.

In a report prepared by CII and Alcatel-Lucent and Booz &Co, China ranks 1st in the list followed by Switzerland and the Netherlands which ranked 5th and 9th respectively.  The report stated that India is the regional leader in Global Innovation Index within Central and Southern Asia and emphasized the need for the BRIC countries to invest further in their innovation capabilities to live up to their expected potential.

Though, the report emphasized that in spite of being innovation learners both China and India have weaknesses in their innovation infrastructure and environment. The middle and low income economies demonstrate rising levels of innovation achievement as a result of improvements in institutional frameworks, skilled labour force, better innovation infrastructures, deeper integration with global financial and other markets, and a sophisticated business community even if progress in these dimensions is not uniform across all segments of the country.

For the second year running Switzerland, Sweden, and Singapore lead in the overall innovation performance in Global Innovation Index 2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,301.40, higher by 13.45 points or 0.25%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,317.65 and 5,291.40 respectively. There were 30 stocks advancing against 19 declines and one remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Jindal Steel up by 4.10%, Sterlite Industries up by 3.18%, Sesa Goa up by 3.02%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.36% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.82%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.89%, Wipro down by 1.57%, Asian Paints down by 1.50%, BPCL down by 1.07% and HCL Tech down by 0.94%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian markets were trading in the green; Hang Seng Index gained 0.13%, Jakarta Composite surged 0.78%, KLSE Composite added 0.30%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.41%, Straits Times Index advanced 0.43%, Taiwan Weighted climbed 0.06% and Kospi Composite accumulated 0.35%. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite down by 0.34% was the lone loser on the index.