Benchmarks made decent opening tracking supportive global cues

Indian frontline equity benchmarks have made a positive opening with the NSE Nifty reclaiming the 5,700 milestone and the BSE Sensex close to the 18,800 mark amid supportive global cues. The US markets made a bounce back with the start of new week and major indices gained about a percent after retail sales for September exceeded expectations, though another report on manufacturing activity in New York state in October showed less improvement than anticipated but traders overlooked that with better than expected earnings by Citigroup. Moreover, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green terrain at this point of time supported by gains in exporters after the US retail sales data. There was some somberness in Chinese market on earnings concern.

Back home, the major support came in from Reliance Industries (RIL) and Axis Bank which rose smartly after they announced good set of results for the fiscal’s second quarter late on Monday evening. However, shares of Tata Motors are down following a drop in sales of Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) brands. Meanwhile, inflation accelerated to a 10-month high in September on the back of higher diesel prices but Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the recovery process has begun and will lead to a higher growth rate of 6 per cent or higher in the second half of 2012-13.

Most of the sectoral indices were trading with a positive bias. Consumer Durables, Technology and Realty indices are the notable gainers. Capital goods, software, power, FMCG and oil and gas indices have gained moderately as well. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,086 shares on the gaining side against 549 shares on the losing side while 74 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,784.75; about 71 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,713.55, and has touched a high and a low of 18,801.10 and 18,765.99 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,773.81, up by 60.26 points or 0.32%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 63.55% stocks advancing against 32.12% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.31% and 0.48% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.67%, TECk up by 0.63%, Realty up by 0.62%, CG up by 0.54% and IT up by 0.53%. While, Auto down by 0.50%, remained the lone loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.14%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.12%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.07%, Tata Power up by 1.01% and HDFC up by 0.91%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 2.12%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.74%, GAIL was down by 0.62%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.48% and Cipla was down by 0.39% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, concerned over the global economic crisis, Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram at the meeting of International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) pointed out that the high commodity prices mainly energy prices causes major risk to the India’s growth and inflation. Even though centre has taken several measures to boost the financial growth, volatile capital flows to emerging economies and elevated global food prices also sharpens the concerns over the emerging economies like India.

He blamed geo-political tensions and huge liquidity injected in financial systems by US, Europe and Japan to stimulate their economies for the surging prices in the global market. He also cautioned that India’s inflation rate has been above the comfort zone of the Reserve Bank and affirmed that the central bank’s key policy rate was kept unchanged at 8% since April so as to check the demand side pressure.

India's current account deficit had peaked during the last few quarters mainly due to large import bills on crude oil and gold. While India’s financial growth had dipped to a nine-year low level of about 6.5% in 2011-12 and in the first quarter of the current fiscal, the GDP expansion stood at 5.5%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its recent report had projected India's economic growth at 4.9% in 2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,705.60; about 28 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,687.25, and has touched a high and a low of 5,714.00 and 5,699.45 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,699.55, up by 12.30 points or 0.22%. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.34%, Siemens up by 1.18%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.16%, TCS up by 0.95% and DLF up by 0.92%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.25%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.12%, ACC down by 0.97%, HDFC Bank down by 0.89% and BPCL down by 0.77%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up by 8.39 points or 0.40% to 2,107.09, Hang Seng gained 52.69 points or 0.25% to 21,200.94, KLSE Composite was up by 2.76 points or 0.15% to 1,656.87, Nikkei 225 surged by 80.89 points or 0.94% to 8,658.82, Straits Times was up by 11.07 points or 0.36% to 3,054.31, Kospi Composite ascended by 10.59 points or 0.58% to 1,936.03 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 36.11 points or 0.49% to 7,455.11.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite contracted 3.89 points or 0.09% to 4,309.63.