Benchmarks continue to trade sanguine; Pharma stocks spurts

Benchmark equity indices, gaining strength brick by brick, continue to trade in fine contour, thanks to sharp gains in Consumer Durable, Realty and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters. Bit of cautiousness ahead of the winter session of parliament, whereby investors await for positive triggers to emerge from the government's efforts toward reforms for higher economic growth, are keeping a lid on the gains of the bourses at D-Street. The parliament session will consider 25 legislative proposals, including key bills to liberalize the insurance and pension sectors. Further, even gains of Pharma stocks are cushioning the sentiment. Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals, Cipla and Sun Pharmaceuticals, all have beefed up gains of over a percent ahead of GoM meet on Wednesday to resolve deadlock on Pharma pricing. The meet assumes importance with the expected attendance of the finance minister, where hopes are high that the pricing policy, which has been mired since 2003, will be revamped. Thus, after session of consolidation, barometer 30 share index, Sensex, is trading above 18400 bastion, while 50 share index, Nifty, scooping over quarter percent, looks increasing close to 5600 bastion. Broader indices, meanwhile, too are trading in fine contour.

On the global front, Asian stocks erased gains to trade mixed after investors refocused on the risk of a US fiscal crisis following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's remarks that the budget impasse was already damaging growth.  However, sentiment in Asian -pacific region also were affected Japan on Wednesday posted its worst October trade figures in over 30 years, underscoring persistent weakness in the world's third-largest economy amid the global slowdown and a spat with China.  Additionally, European stock index futures point towards a dip on Wednesday on fresh worries over Greece after international lenders failed to reach a deal for the payment of a new tranche of aid to the debt-stricken country.

Closer home, Power, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) and Auto counters, emerged as top laggards. On the flip side, Information Technology have gained strength on weakening Rupee. The Indian currency has hit over two-month low against the US dollar after falling for the fourth consecutive session on fears of a weak Q2 GDP number and fiscal slippage.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18408.66, up by 79.34 points or 0.43%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favor of rise, which have piped advances in the ratio of 1326:1118, while 117 shares remain unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were up by 0.19% and 0.42% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 1.49%, Realty up by 1.14%, FMCG up by 0.85%, Bankex up by 0.82% and IT up by 0.64%. While, Power down by 0.31%, PSU down by 0.04% and Auto down by 0.03% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.12%, Cipla up by 1.69%, ICICI Bank up by 1.57%, Tata Power up by 1.42% and Jindal Steel up by 1.07%.

On the flip side, BHEL was down by 1.82%, NTPC was down by 1.19%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.13%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.10% and HDFC was down by 0.73% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, confident over the retrieval of the Indian economy’s high-growth trajectory within a couple of years, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that there was no scope for gloom or despair, on the crisis which resulted in global slowdown since 2008.

Though, the country has registered about 5.5 percent growth in the first quarter, the government is hopeful of an improvement in GDP growth rate in the second half. Along with India, countries like China, Indonesia and to some extent Brazil and South Africa has acquired a decent growth rate. Apparently referring to the decisions on fuel price and LPG price hike, Chidambaram stated that government had taken a number of decisions to revive growth, but some of them are painful.

Further, on the sidelines Chidambaram said that the country must use its finances judiciously and prudently to tide over the difficulty. He also added that advanced economies are doing very badly and thus their growth in 2012 is expected to be only about 1.2 percent, which is also likely to affect the Indian economy.

S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,593.10, up by 21.55 points or 0.39%, after touching a high and a low of 5,602.25 and 5,561.40 respectively. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.18%, Asian Paint up by 1.92%, Cipla up by 1.70%, ICICI bank up by 1.63% and Tata Power up by 1.57%.

On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.80%, NTPC down by 1.63%, Cairn down by 1.24%, Hero Motocorp down by 1.03% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.97%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the mixed; Jakarta Composite was down by 0.29%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.12%, Seoul Composite was down by 0.32% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.80%. On the flip side, Hang Seng up by 0.35%, Shanghai Composite was up by 0.47%, Straits Times was up by 0.01% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.87% were the gainers amongst Asian pack.