Benchmarks shoot up to intra-day high level; Nifty pierces through 5800 mark

Benchmark equity indices, gaining strength brick by brick, have now escalated to intra-day’ high level, with Nifty now piercing through the 5800 psychological mark, highest since October 4 and Sensex comfortably sailing past 19,000 psychological level, it’s highest since October 5, 2012. A shot in the arm was provided to the benchmark equity indices after four day logjam was ended over the FDI in retail ended on Thursday with Speaker Meira Kumar allowing a discussion on the subject under a rule that entails voting, thereby fuelling the hopes that the government will be able to push through economic reforms.  Gains in local equity markets were also tracking Asian pacific market that hit three-week highs on Thursday as sentiment improved after a senior U.S. lawmaker said he was 'optimistic' on reaching a budget deal before the end of the year to avoid a fiscal crisis. Further, the sentiment also remained bullish on the reports of Goldman Sachs upgrading Indian stocks to 'overweight' from 'market-weight', citing growth recovery and inflation moderation ahead.

On the BSE sectoral front, rate sensitive’s Realty, Auto and  Bankex and Metal counters, all were prominent gainers ahead the release of Q2 GDP data on Friday. On the flip side, Information Technology and Technology counters were the only losers. The market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1589 shares on the gaining side against 1040 shares on the losing side while 119 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19096.42, up by 254.34 or 1.35%. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 declines on the index.

Broader indices too lured additional traction; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 1.20% and 0.61% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 3.01%, Auto up by 1.98%, Metal up by 1.78%, Bankex up by 1.62% and Oil & Gas up by 1.46%. While, IT down by 0.63% and TECk down by 0.34% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Inds up by 4.71%, Tata Motors up by 4.28%, Bajaj Auto up by 4.22%, Cipla up by 3.43% and HDFC up by 3.39%.

On the flip side, Infosys was down by 1.59%, BHEL was down by 1.34%and Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.65% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, only those coal mines, which have been explored, would be put up for auction, as per the government. However, of the 54 coal mines identified to be allocated through auction route, only 12 have been explored. Though, the government has not given any time frame for conducting auction of these blocks but Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had earlier said that auction of coal blocks would not be possible this year because of the long process involved in it. In related development, the Coal Ministry has sought the expertise of Finance Ministry with regard to the bidding documents for selection of mine developer and operator for certain Coal India mines.

Earlier, CAG had estimated that undue benefits to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakh crore might have accrued to private firms on account of allocation of 57 mines to them without auction, though this loss figure has been questioned by the government.

On state level, Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation (JSMDC) has requested the Prime Minister and the Union Coal Ministry not to cancel the coal blocks allotted to the state-run public sector company. Among the allocated eight mines, the state government had earlier decided to form a joint venture with private sector companies. Jharkhand had received allocation of 50 coal blocks during 2006 and 2011. The Ministry of Coal had earlier issued a warning to JSMDC that if the coal blocks were not developed immediately it would face cancellation. The Coal Ministry had also issued letters to 6 prominent private companies asking to develop the coal blocks allocated to them immediately.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,797.35, up by 69.90 points or 1.22% and has touched a high and a low of 5,799.30 and 5,736.10 respectively. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.22%, Bajaj Auto up by 4.05%, Cipla up by 3.49%, Sesa Goa up by 3.48% and HDFC up by 3.28%.

On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.67%, Power Grid down by 1.31%, BHEL down by 1.30%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.98% and HCL Tech down by 0.43%, were the only losers on the index.

Most of Asian markets were trading in green; Seoul Composite gained 1.15%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.99%, Hang Seng up by 0.96%, KLSE Composite up by 0.10%, Straits Times gained 0.84% and Taiwan Weighted surged by 0.92%. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.33% and Jakarta Composite was down by 0.31%.