Markets make a green start of the new series

The Indian markets have made a positive start of the new series. The strong global cues have guided the gains of markets for the third day in a row. The US markets ended higher overnight, while the Asian markets have mostly started in green on some good economic reports in the region and hopes that the US administration will reach to a solution to the fiscal cliff. On the domestic front there is some cautiousness ahead of the release of the second quarter GDP numbers. India's economy grew 5.5% in the first quarter of this fiscal against 8% in the corresponding period of last fiscal. There is wide expectation on the street that the Indian GDP is likely to grow 5.3 per cent in September quarter as data on industrial production and the PMIs point to little change in growth. Finance Minister P Chidambaram too had said last week that growth was about 5.5 per cent in the three months to the end of September. Back on Street the indices are trading at the high of the 2012 trading range and now the GDP numbers are likely to move the markets on either direction. On the sectoral front, metal index has taken the lead followed by power and consumer durables, while FMCG and auto indices are witnessing some profit booking. There is some buzz in the primary market too, as Bharti Infratel has announced the price band for its biggest IPO since Coal India, to raise Rs 4,500 crore. The company has set a price band of Rs 210 to Rs 240 a share for its IPO.

The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,125 shares on the gaining side against 537 shares on the losing side while 55 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,229.70; about 58.79 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,170.91, and has touched a high and a low of 19,323.52 and 19,223.93 respectively. The index is currently trading at 19,257.23, up by 86.32 or 0.45%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 65.63% stocks advancing against 30.96% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.84% and 0.51% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.13%, CD up by 1.08%, Power up by 0.93%, IT up by 0.83% and CG up by 0.79% while, Auto down by 0.46% and FMCG down by 0.45% were only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up by 2.77%, BHEL up by 2.63%, Sterlite Inds up by 2.57%, HDFC up by 2.55% and Hero MotoCorp up by 2.07%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 1.87%, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.46%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.10%, ITC was down by 0.67% and RIL was down by 0.60% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, to meet the target of providing electricity to all households by 2017, Power minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has requested the finance minister to allocate Rs. 36,000 crore for meeting the 12th plan targets of providing  electricity to 5,74,000 rural households under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY).

The Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) was a flagship scheme of the UPA-I that had the ambitious goal of completing rural electrification by providing access to all villages and households. As per 2011 census results, only 55.3 per cent of rural households in the country use electricity for lighting. The government is aiming to provide power to 5,74,000 households in the next five years under the RGGVY. The Centre provides 90 per cent of the project cost as capital subsidy for establishing Rural Electricity Distribution Backbone (REDB) and Village Electrification Infrastructure (VEI) and provides free electricity single point connection to BPL households under RGGVY.

Talking about the transformers provided under RGGVY getting burnt, the power minister has said that overloading due to illegal connections was the reason behind that. Scindia further said that repair/replacement of burnt transformers is the responsibility of the implementing agency before the infrastructure is handed over to the discoms/power departments. After handover, the responsibility shifts to the discoms/power departments, who are expected to carry out the same as per their norms and procedures. At present, Bihar is the worst affected state with 6,236 RGGVY transformers getting burnt, followed by Jharkhand 4,392 and Orissa 1,451 transformers.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,736.70; 9.25 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,825.00, and has touched a high and a low of 5,865.85 and 5,835.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,846.65, up by 21.65 points or 0.37%. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 2.90%, HDFC up by 2.45%, IDFC up by 2.21%, Hero Moto up by 2.20% and Jindal Stell up by 2.05%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 1.85%, Ranbaxy was down by 1.64%, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.42%, Ultratech Cement was down by 1.27% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.45% were the top losers on the Nifty.

The Asian markets were trading in green; Shanghai Composite was up by 10.94 points or 056% to 1,974.43, KLSE Composite up by 4.03 points or 0.25% to 1,611.35, Taiwan Weighted was up by 74.18 points or 0.99% to 7,577.73, Seoul Composite gained 4.21 points or 0.22% to 1,939.06, Nikkei 225 gained 72.02 points or 0.77% to 9,472.84, Straits Times gained 33.44 points or 1.10% to 3,079.34, and Hang Seng was up by 130.95 points or 0.60% to 22,053.84.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite was down by 28.21 points or 0.65% to 4,290.88.