Indian equities continue to trade firm

Indian equities continued to trade in fine fettle on back of strong buying in frontline counters in the late morning session. On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, on expectation that, while delivering his semi-annual report on the economy Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hint at further monetary easing. China has decided to encourage foreign investment into industries including high-end manufacturing, technology and new energy. The US markets closed in red after the International Monetary Fund reduced its global economic outlook. Traders were seen piling up position in HC, Realty and Metal sector while selling was witnessed in IT sector. Sun Pharma, DR Reddy, Ranbaxy and Cipla, from HC pack was seen trading in green driving the markets higher. Meanwhile, traders will also be watching for any development in monsoon as Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said that the deficient southwest monsoon would have an impact on the kharif crop this year, though he insisted that there was no drought-like situation in the country yet. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,200 and 17,200 levels respectively

The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1213:773 while 96 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,218.05 up by 114.74 points or 0.67% after trading as high as 17,236.08 and as low as 17,176.93. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index up 0.46% while Small cap index was up 0.49%.

On the BSE sectoral space, HC up by 1.52%, Realty up by 1.13%, Metal up by 0.87%, FMCG up by 0.76% and Bankex up by 0.71% while IT down by 0.03%  were only the loser on the index.

Sun Pharma up by2.33%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.29%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.14%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.35% and Tata Power up by 1.35% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while TCS down by 1.14%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.93%, BHEL down by 0.63%, and Gail India down by 0.27%  were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, in line with firm international oil rates, state owned oil companies, putting an end to their three month trend of price cuts, have hiked the prices of ATF or Jet fuel by 1.7%. Prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) or jet fuel in national capital were hiked by Rs 1,039.10 per kilolitre (kl) or 1.7% to Rs 62,208.18. In Mumbai, jet fuel will cost Rs 63,002.45 per kl from today as compared Rs 61,933.58 per kl previously.

The reduction in rates in six fortnights mainly triggered the increase in jet fuel prices, including a 5 per cent (Rs 3,260 per kl) cut in prices effected from June 16 and nearly 2 per cent (Rs 1,241 per kl) cut effected from July 1. Jet fuel, which scaled an all-time high level of Rs 71,028.26 per kl in August 2008 shortly after international oil rates touched a record $147 per barrel, fell to an eight-month low of Rs 61,169.08 per kl earlier this month.

However, this development, may came as blow to the beleaguered Indian airlines, as jet fuel constitutes more than 40% of the airline’s operating cost.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,227.00, up  by 29.75 points or 0.57% after trading as high as 5,236.70 and as low as 5,220.65. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.41%, DR Reddy up by 2.35%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.17%, Ranbaxy by 1.74% and Hindalco up by 1.52%.  While BPCL down by 3.31%, Bajaj-Auto down by 1.52%, TCS down by 1.21%, HCL Tech down by 1.19% and REL Infra down by 1.08% were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng index up by 1.70%, Nikkei 225 up 0.82%, Kospi Composite Index up 0.84%, Strait Times up 0.70%, Jakarta Composite up 0.57% and KLSE Composite up 0.63% , Taiwan Weighted up 0.29%  and Shanghai Composite was up  0.56%.