Benchmarks extend gains for fifth consecutive day; Sensex re-conquer 18,800 mark

Prolonging their winning streak to fifth day in a row, key Indian benchmarks snapped the session near their intraday high with Sensex recapturing its crucial 18,800 mark. The frontline indices traded cautiously for most part of the day’s trade as investors remained cautious ahead of the US Presidential Election as opinion polls indicated a neck-to-neck fight between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The psychological 18,800 (Sensex) and 5,700 (Nifty) levels proved as strong support levels as the key indices despite repeated attempts refused to go below those levels. Bulls picked up the pace in the late trade, which helped the markets to end near day’s high supported by recovery in European markets.

Domestic sentiments were mainly supported by turnaround in European counters as Americans get prepared to decide whether giving President Barack Obama another four years in White House or replacing him with Republican challenger Mitt Romney. However, Asian markets shut shop mostly in the red on Tuesday on renewed doubts over Greece's ability to push through severe fiscal reforms and ahead of China’s Party Congress meet, scheduled to start on Nov 7, as Asia's largest economy is expected to unveil the next generation of Chinese leaders.

Back home, key domestic bourses, despite the subdued global cues, gained some momentum after Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the government is taking several steps to boost investor confidence and more such measures may follow. Buying in rate sensitive -- banking and realty -- too soothed the sentiments on some consoling news that the Reserve Bank of India may go for easing monetary policy as early as January. Meanwhile, marketmen also poured in their fund into risky equities on the back of some good second quarter earnings. Dena Bank registered marginal rise of 23.79% in its net profit at Rs 239.64 crore as compared to Rs 193.58 crore in the corresponding month previous year and Tech Mahindra too reported over 23 percent rise in Q2 net profit rose to Rs 296 crore, helped by new deal wins and acquisitions.

Some amount of support also came in from PSU segment, which rose about half a percent as government is planning to raise around Rs 1,400 crore by selling a 12.15 percent stake in National Aluminum Company on Nov 9, as it seeks to urgently revive the stuttering disinvestment programme. Buying in healthcare space too aided the sentiments, healthcare gained about a percent led by Cipla which reported better than expected second quarter numbers. Cipla reported 62 percent spike year-on-year in its net profit to Rs 500 crore for the quarter ended September 2012.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose by over twenty points to end comfortably above its psychological 5,700 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex gained over fifty points to finish above the psychological 18,800 mark. Moreover, broader markets outperformed the benchmarks and ended the session in the green with a cut of over half a percent.

The overall volumes stood below Rs 1.18 lakh crore, which remained on the lower side as compared to that on Monday. The market breadth remained in favor of advances as there were 1,519 shares on the gaining side against 1,318 shares on the losing side while 141 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 54.51 points or 0.29% to settle at 18,817.38, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 20.20 points or 0.35% to end at 5,724.40.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 18,829.07 and 18,726.94, respectively. The BSE Mid-cap index was up by 0.56% and Small-cap index was up by 0.35%.

Cipla up 4.18%, GAIL up 1.85%, HDFC up 1.75%, Jindal Steel up 1.43% and SBI up 1.39% were the major gainers on the Sensex. On the flip side, Hindalco down 1.87%, Maruti Suzuki down 1.70%, Tata Motors down 1.06%, Hero MotoCorp down 0.72% and Bajaj Auto down 0.60% were the major losers on the index.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, Realty up 2.05%, Health Care (HC) up 0.95%, Power up 0.71%, Bankex up 0.60% and PSU up 0.45%, while Auto down 0.51%, Capital Goods (CG) down 0.21% and IT down 0.01% were major losers on the BSE sectoral space.

Meanwhile, India's steel exports rose by 5% to 2.367 million tonnes (MT) between April-September of the current fiscal as compared to the same period of previous year. The involvement of the non-alloy segment stood at 2.118 MT, while the remaining was from alloy steel, including stainless steel.

The total finished non-alloy steel exports, non-flat products stood at 0.176 MT and the flat basket was at 1.942 MT. Bars & rods and structural were the major contributors to the exports in non-flat segment. In the flat segment, HR Sheets, CR Coils and Galvanised Products were the biggest contributors.

India's steel exports were behind by 1% to 1.91 MT till the April-August period of current fiscal over the last year same period. India's total steel exports during the last fiscal stood at 4 MT, while imports stood at 68 MT. India’s steelmaking capacity in 2011-12 was around 90 MT, but actual production during the fiscal stood at 73.8 MT.

Steel, such as stainless steel, produced with some amount of alloying elements to impart specific properties is known as alloy steel. Non-alloy steel does not contain any alloy.

The S&P CNX Nifty touched a high and a low of 5,730.80 and 5,693.65 respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Cipla up 4.23%, Asian Paints up 3.61%, Ambuja Cement up 2.71%, ACC up 2.68% and Ranbaxy up 2.51%.

The top losers on the index were IDFC down 2.34%, Maruti Suzuki down 1.89%, Hindalco down 1.83%, Reliance Infra down 1.72% and Tata Motors down 1.07%.

European markets were trading in green. France’s CAC 40 up 0.75%, Germany’s DAX up 0.71% and Britain’s FTSE 100 up by 0.55%.

Following the sluggish start of the week, Asian markets ended mixed on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. Presidential election result. Hong Kong closed lower weighed by its largest constituent HSBC Holdings which dropped 1.4% after releasing third quarter results. In China, the Shanghai Composite went home with red mark ahead of key political events. However, South Korea's market closed in green zone, as stocks of car companies that were sold heavily on Monday regained some ground. Meanwhile, Investors were looking for economic data release from China on Friday, which includes retail sales, industrial production and the country’s consumer and producer price indexes.