Benchmarks hold early gains; Realty, CG and Bankex lead

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 majority of Asian markets were trading in green at this point of time though the Chinese market was trading lower on concern of slowing economic growth that may deepen next year as export demand slumps. Back home, the traders were seen piling up position in Realty, CG and Bankex sector, while selling was witnessed in IT, FMCG and HC sector. DLF, Unitech, Gail HDIL, Oberoi Realty, Sobha Developers, India Bulls Real Estate and Godrej Properties from realty pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. L&T, BHEL, Siemens, Crompton Greaves and ABB from CG pack were seen trading firm in green. IT majors Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL Tech and Oracle Financial Services Software were capping the markets’ gains while FMCG majors ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India, United Spirits and Colgate Palmolive too were pressurizing the markets. Meanwhile, Retail stocks Pantaloon Retail (India), Shoppers Stop, Provogue (India) and Trent were trading jubilant after government pushed through the move to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. However, approving 51% FDI in retail, the Centre said it will be up to the state governments to decide whether they want to implement FDI in retail in their respective states. Aviation stocks, Spicejet, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways (India) were trading sanguine after cabinet, on Friday, decided to allow foreign airlines to buy up to 49 per cent stake in local carriers, a step that is expected to give a boost to cash-strapped aviation industry. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the proposal which would pave way for much-needed equity infusion into India's airlines passing through acute turbulence as most of them are in dire need of funds for operations. Media stocks, TV18 Broadcast, Network18 Media & Investment, Zee News, Balaji Telefilms were trading jubilantly after the government announced liberation of foreign investment in the broadcasting sector.

In the scrip specific development, Oil India (OIL) gained on reporting a record annual production of oil at 3.847 million metric tones in FY12 while the company has also registered stellar production numbers of natural gas at 2,633.29 million metric standard cubic meters in the last fiscal. Bharti Airtel rose on entering into partnership with cab operator GoCarz. Syndicate Bank jumped on entering into distribution tie-up with HDFC Mutual Fund. Eon Electric jumped on setting up first plant for manufacturing Lithium Ion Batteries. Havells India edged higher as its arm entered into settlement agreement for Sylvania brand

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5600 and 18,600 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1509:739.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18635.03 up by 170.76 points or 0.92% after touching a high of 18715.03 and low of 18569.24. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.20% and Small cap index was up by 1.22%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Realty up by 5.74%, CG up by 3.09%, Bankex up by 2.83%, Oil &Gas up by 2.46% and Auto up by 2.28% were the gainers. While IT down by 2.14%, FMCG down by 1.73%, HC down by 1.73% and TECk down by 1.34% were the losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up by 4.46%, ICICI Bank up by 4.27%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.95%, SBI up by 3.91% and RIL up by 3.68%. On the flip side, Dr Reddys Lab down by 2.87%, TCS down by 2.83%, ITC down by 2.65%, Cipla down by 2.19% and Infosys down by 2.13% were the losers on the Sensex. 

 Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its projections of 2012 for the Indian economy by 0.7 percentage points to 6.1%, which is the biggest revision made for any country. The Indian economy which had grown by 10.8% in 2010, slowed down to 7.1% in 2011. According to the projections, the impact would be greatest on India’s growth on account of slowdown.

IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) has pointed out that no country will be able to come out unaffected by the continuing global turmoil and expects the Indian economy to grow by 6.1% in 2012 and 6.5% in 2013, citing that the impact of several uncertain conditions will be seen in the year 2013 as well. With respect to the fourth quarter, the Indian economy will continue to grow by 6.4% in both 2012 and 2013, which will be a slight improvement of the 6.2% figure in Q4 2011.

IMF has also revised the projections of other emerging countries like Brazil and China. Weak external environment, declining domestic demand have resulted in this downward revision of growth estimates. Moreover, increasing risk aversion and perceived growth uncertainty have resulted into dipping equity prices and capital outflows which further resulted in currency depreciation. IMF revised the projection for the Emerging and Developing Markets to be down by 0.1 percentage points to 5.6% in 2012 and will grow by 5.9% in 2013.

The outlook for the Euro-zone also looks weak. Even though the IMF has maintained its previous projection for 2012 which was to be down by 0.3 percentage points, the IMF has revised its projection for 2013 downward by 0.2 percentage points to 0.7%, pointing out that the worst may be yet to come. The US economy is also likely to face the heat from the global crisis when the IMF slashed the projections for its economy by 0.1 percentage points in both the years 2012 and 2013 to 2% and 2.3% respectively. For the global economic growth for 2012, IMF has left its previous projection unchanged at 3.5% but the growth rate for the same has been revised down by 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%.

  The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,631.30, up by 53.65 points or 0.96% after trading in a range of 5,652.20 and 5,612.65. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 5.97%, DLF up by 5.96%, IDFC up by 5.40%, Reliance Infra up by 4.93% and Maruti by 4.82%. On the flip side, DR Reddy down by 3.02%, HCL Tech down by 2.99%, TCS down by 2.84%, ITC down by 2.78% and Infosys down by 1.98% were the losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were trading in green; Jakarta Composite up by 0.10%, Hang Seng index up by 0.15%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.25% and Straits Times up by 0.25% while Shanghai Composite down by 1.33% and Kospi Composite Index down by 0.23% were the losers.

The Japanese market is closed today on account of a public holiday on ‘Respect for the Aged Day’, while the Malaysian market is closed on account of Malaysia Day public holiday.