Benchmarks made positive opening tracking supportive global cues

Indian frontline equity benchmarks have made a positive opening with the BSE Sensex reclaiming the 18,500 milestone and the NSE Nifty were trading comfortably above its crucial 5,600 mark amid supportive global cues. The US markets extended their gains for the fourth straight day ahead of the holiday; however the trade remained choppy as the traders got encouraged with report of rise in consumer confidence and manufacturing; also as weekly jobless claims fell to 410,000. Meanwhile, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time. Japanese market has taken the lead as weaker yen boosted the outlook for country’s exporters.

Back home, the market after a positive opening turned range-bound as investors were awaiting the winter session proceedings in the parliament. The UPA government is expected to face a stormy parliamentary session as opposition parties are set to corner it over its decision to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. Moreover, pharma stocks were trading jubilantly in the morning deals after the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the proposed National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy has decided to make some key changes in its earlier recommendations to soften the prices of essential medicines.

Most of the sectoral indices were trading with a positive bias. Realty, Bankex and Auto indices were the notable gainers. Capital goods, metal, healthcare and consumer durables indices have gained over half a percent. However, auto remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral front. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,009 shares on the gaining side against 449 shares on the losing side while 63 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,510.94; about 50 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,460.38, and has touched a high and a low of 18,544.08 and 18,501.21 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,523.28, up by 62.90 points or 0.34%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 66.34% stocks advancing against 29.52% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.58% and 0.78% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.00%, Bankex up by 0.81%, Auto up by 0.75%, HC up by 0.58% and Metal up by 0.52% while, IT down by 0.02%, remained the lone loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.58%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.34%, Tata Steel up by 1.04%, Sterlite Industries up by 0.99% and Cipla up by 0.92%.

On the flip side, Tata Power was down by 0.85%, Sun Pharma was down by 0.76%, TCS was down by 0.24%, GAIL was down by 0.16% and ITC was down by 0.09% 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.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,628.60; about 14 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,614.80, and has touched a high and a low of 5,638.25 and 5,621.30 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,636.90, up by 22.10 points or 0.39%. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.51%, SBI up by 1.60%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.37%, PNB up by 1.33% and JP Associates up by 1.30%.

On the flip side, Tata Power down by 1.14%, Sun Pharma down by 0.85%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.82%, TCS down by 0.31% and ITC down by 0.30%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng gained 95.99 points or 0.45% to 21,620.35, Jakarta Composite was up by 5.89 points or 0.14% to 4,323.16, Nikkei 225 surged by 94.54 points or 1.03% to 9,317.06, Straits Times gained 15.78 points or 0.53% to 2,976.08, Seoul Composite was up by 14.35 points or 0.76% to 1,898.39 and Taiwan Weighted was higher by 18.24 points or 0.26% to 7,106.73.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 8.10 points or 0.40% to 2,022.21 and KLSE Composite declined by 2.84 points or 0.17% to 1,620.13.