Benchmarks firm up as Obama wins US Presidential election

Indian benchmarks, after opening slightly in the red, bounced back to the green terrain graciously in the early trade after Barack Obama wins US Presidential election for the second term as 44th President after winning a key victory in Ohio. The global cues too remained supportive as the US markets surged overnight ahead of the results of presidential election while most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time.

Back home, Indian frontline indices were inching towards their crucial 5,750 (Nifty) and 18,900 (Sensex) levels support by broad based buying. The sentiments also got some support after PSU oil marketing companies like HPCL and IOC edged higher as they are waiting for comfort letter from the finance ministry on the release of fuel subsidy payments for the first six months of 2012-13 to avert a credit ratings downgrade. Rally in Power companies too aided the sentiments  and stocks like Power Grid and NTPC edged higher as private power producers have accused Coal India of drafting a ‘one-sided’ fuel supply agreements (FSAs) favouring Government companies.

On the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by metal and technology while, fast moving consumer goods and oil and gas remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading optimistically with a gain of over half a percent while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,004 shares on the gaining side against 497 shares on the losing side while 70 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,802.82; about 15 points lower compared to its previous closing of 18,817.38, and has touched a high and a low of 18,884.28 and 18,786.14 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,878.40, up by 61.02 points or 0.32%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 63.91% stocks advancing against 31.64% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.67% and 0.47% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.19%, Metal up by 0.82%, TECk up by 0.64%, Bankex up by 0.62% and IT up by 062% while, FMCG down by 0.11% and Oil and Gas down by 0.02% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 1.42%, Tata Steel up by 1.28%, BHEL up by 0.97%, SBI up by 0.89% and Sterlite Industries up by 0.84%.

On the flip side, Tata Power was down by 1.03%, HUL was down by 0.84%, ITC was down by 0.43%, Coal India was down by 0.34% and RIL was down by 0.29% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in spite of prevailing recession around globe, exports from the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) grew by a remarkable 36 percent at Rs 2.39 lakh crore during the second quarter of this financial year as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal. The government, in total, has granted 586 formal approvals for setting up of SEZs. Out of which so far, 385 SEZs have been notified and 160 SEZs are in operation, out of which 17 are multi product SEZs, remaining are IT/ITeS, engineering, electronic hardware, textiles, biotechnology, gem & jewellery and other sector specific.

Meanwhile, as on September 30, 2012 investments aggregating to the worth Rs 218,795.41 crore were made in SEZs which led to the sector generating employment of upto  9,45,990 persons.

However, these tax-free enclaves have lost luster after imposition of certain levies and proposal to take away tax incentives. Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs still hopes that Finance Minister will consider the request of the SEZ Sector for withdrawal of MAT/DDT immediately to lure additional exports, foreign and domestic investments that would also result in accelerated employment generation. The council has further added that Finance Minister's timely intervention would give great relief to the operational SEZ’s , besides bringing in the held-up investments and also in providing long term stability, continuity to the SEZ Scheme.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,718.60; about 6 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,724.40, and has touched a high and a low of 5,744.25 and 5,711.40 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,740.40, higher by 16.00 points or 0.28%. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 1.60%, RInfra up by 1.46%, Tata Steel up by 1.33%, DLF up by 1.11% and Axis Bank up by 1.01%.

On the flip side, Tata Power down by 1.32%, HUL down by 0.87%, Coal India down by 0.54%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.48% and Siemens down by 0.41%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Shanghai Composite declined by 8.83 points or 0.42% to 2,097.17, Hang Seng lost 81.59 points or 0.37% to 21,862.84 and Kospi Composite declined by 9.40 points or 0.50% to 1,918.49

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite gained 12.69 points or 0.29% to 4,326.63, KLSE Composite was up by 1.85 points or 0.11% to 1,647.83 and Straits Times added 1.24 points or 0.04% to 3,020.31, Nikkei 225 rose 11.32 points or 0.13% to 8,986.47 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 14.57 points or 0.20% to 7,251.25.