Benchmarks prolong gains for third straight session in morning trade

Indian benchmarks, after making a flat opening, are trading in the positive terrain on the back of strong global cues. Overnight, the US stocks rose for a third straight day, pushing the S&P above 1,400 for the first time since early May. Moreover, most of the Asian markets have made a positive start on better corporate earnings report from US that boosted the outlook for the economy. The Japanese market has surged by over a percent ahead of the Bank of Japan’s two-day policy meeting starting today. Back home, the rupee rose to a three-week high on Tuesday, extending gains for a third consecutive session on the back of a more favourable global risk environment and large dollar sales by domestic companies. BSE’s -- Sensex -- and NSE’s -- Nifty is inching towards their crucial 17,700 and 5,350 mark respectively. On sectoral front, metal witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by auto and public sector undertaking while, realty, fast moving consumer goods and technology remained the few losers on the BSE sectoral space. However, gains remained capped as telecom stocks declined after Bharti Airtel reported disappointing Q1 numbers. The company, on consolidated basis, reported a decline of 37.28% in its net profit at Rs 762.20 crore for Q1FY13 as compared to Rs 1215.20 crore for Q1FY12. The broader indices were going neck to neck with benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,018 shares on the gaining side against 452 shares on the losing side while 71 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,638.53; about 37 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,601.78, and has touched a high and a low of 17,679.37 and 17,609.24 respectively. The index is currently trading at 17,659.71, up by 57.93 points or 0.33%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 66.06% stocks advancing against 29.33% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.57% and 0.49% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.70%, Auto up by 1.06%, PSU up by 0.71%, CD up by 0.56% and CG up by 0.47% while, Realty down by 0.25%, FMCG down by 0.16% and TECk was down by 0.07% remained the few losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 2.74%, Jindal Steel up by 2.38%, Tata Steel up by 1.92%, Coal India up by 1.70% and M&M up by 1.66%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.76%, Tata Power was down by 0.71%, Bajaj Auto was down by 0.37%, GAIL was down by 0.36% and TCS was down by 0.26% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, on the backdrop of recent fall in volumes of apparel exports to the US and the European Union, the centre is all set to take expedite measures to boost the textile industry, while the government has expressed confidence to attain its $18 billion target or Rs 99, 000 crore for this FY 2012-13, which is about 32% rise year-on-year to that of $13.6 billion achieved in FY 2011-12.

Union Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, V Srinivas urged the industry to explore the duty benefit to Japan and EU markets and also to focus on market penetration to the existing markets. The ministry confirmed that it is planning out two-efficient strategies so as to accelerate apparel exports in the short-term and medium-term, keeping in view that readymade garments segment has a huge potential to increase the market share in traditional and new markets worldwide.

The sector has the potential to create one million jobs for an investment of $1 billion (Rs 5, 500 crore). The ministry has also affirmed that the enhancement of technology up gradation funding scheme to Rs 15,808 crore in the sector is in pipeline, anticipating an investment of Rs 150,000 crore over the next five years. An integrated skill development scheme will also be launched to train the workforce for operating sewing machines, it added.

The government had also ensured expansion of capacities around the apparel hub of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu as well as in Ludhiana and Kolkata. It also agreed to make labor laws more flexible so as to scale up manufacturing base.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,345.25; about 9 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,336.70, and has touched a high and a low of 5,361.40 and 5,339.70 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,358.80, higher by 22.10 points or 0.41%. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.69%, Jindal Steel up by 2.28%, Tata Steel up by 1.87%, Coal India up by 1.79% and SAIL up by 1.67%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.86%, Tata Power down by 0.86%, GAIL down by 0.63%, ONGC down by 0.35% and ITC down by 0.33% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng added 54.49 points or 0.27% to 20,061.94, Jakarta Composite gained 8.20 points or 0.20% to 4,093.86, KLSE Composite was up by 4.12 points or 0.25% to 1,635.19, Nikkei surged by 143.44 points or 1.63% to 8,946.65, Kospi Composite was up by 25.78 points or 1.34% to 1,911.41 and Taiwan Weighted added 31.67 points or 0.45% to 7,328.32.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.26 points or 0.10% to 2,155.36 and Straits Times was lone loser, down by 10.55 points or 0.34% to 3,056.90.