Markets turn green; Nifty reclaims 5,700 mark

After a negative start, Indian equity markets rebounded sharply and currently trading moderately higher in the late morning session on Monday. Encouraging earnings reports from Indian companies helped benchmarks to regain the strength. The 30-share BSE benchmark rose over 94 points, while 50-share NSE benchmark reclaimed the 5,700 level. In currency markets, Indian rupee appreciated against dollar after opening lower as exporters and banks increased selling of American currency. On sectoral front information technology, bank, healthcare and oil stocks were trading firm. Select automobile and PSU stocks have edged higher, while FMCG and consumer durables stocks were trading weak. In global markets, Asian stocks were trading mixed on Monday despite disappointing US corporate earnings reports. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,238 shares on the gaining side against 1,132 shares on the losing side while 114 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,776.69, up by 94.38 points or 0.51%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The broader indices too have recovered from their initial fall; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13% while, Small cap index gained 0.41%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.97%, Bankex up by 0.96%, HC up by 0.85%, TECk up by 0.84% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.64%. On the other hand, FMCG down by 0.75%, CD down by 0.37%, Realty down by 0.28% and Metal down by 0.05% were the top losers on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.34%, ICICI Bank up by 1.92%, Dr Reddy’s lab up by 1.65%, M&M up by 1.65% and NTPC up by 1.62%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 1.56%, Tata Motors down by 0.78%, Sterlite Industries down by 0.75%, Jindal Steel down by 0.66% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.27% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, amid wide protests for the spectrum refarming, which has reappeared this week in India’s telecom radar after a brief lull the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on spectrum pricing has deferred the decision to refarm spectrum, by reasoning lack of time and urged operators to vacate the 900 MHz spectrum for the less-efficient 1800 MHz airwaves.

The ministerial group has decided to levy a one-time fee to be calculated from 2008 from companies that hold spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz. The centre will procure about Rs 10,000 crore from this plan. Other than the private telecom giants Airtel and Vodafone, state-owned MTNL and BSNL will also get impacted. The telecom minister Kapil Sibal has indicated that the decision on the refarming issue is likely to be taken a week prior to the start of the auction. While Centre has strongly suggested that the prices should not reflect the new demand conditions for the prized spectrum and urged to price on the basis of the November 2012 auctions.

Even though, the telecom operators  have come up with opposition to this as they argue that it will cost them more than Rs 1,00,000 crore each to reinstall 900 MHz band, as also building more mobile masts and replacing some of the existing gears for ensuring continuous services.

However, the ministerial group has given off to its earlier decision to levy about Rs 27,000 crore surcharges on the 2G spectrum held by existing operators. The panel has recommended that the GSM-based telecom companies are to pay for airwaves beyond 4.4 MHz at the auction-determined price, while CDMA carriers pay for holdings beyond 2.5 MHz Hence, the telecom firms, including Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and others, might have to pay about Rs 27,517 crore. Out of this, GSM players would be levied with Rs 18,000 crore and CDMA operators Rs 9,500 crore.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,710.45, up by 26.20 points or 0.46%. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 31.30%, ICICI Bank up by 1.81%, NTPC up by 1.65%, M&M up by 1.64% and Dr Reddy up by 1.56%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.55%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.14%, Tata Motors down by 0.80%, Jindal Steel down by 0.80% and Bank of Baroda down by 0.69%, were the major losers on the index.

Some of the Asian markets have bounced back, Hang Seng was up 0.65%, Jakarta Composite was marginally up by 0.05%, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.09% and Straits Times up by 0.04%.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.09%, KLSE Composite was lower by 0.09%, Kospi Composite lost 0.12% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.48%.