Markets remain firm heading for hat-trick of massive gains

The Indian markets have firmed up in the late afternoon trades, though the benchmarks pared some gains after the GDP data announcement, but soon recovered, while the broader markets too have extended their gains. The GDP numbers slowed down to 5.3 percent in the July-September versus 5.5 percent in last quarter and 6.7 percent in same quarter last year. The numbers despite being lower were in-line to the street expectation and traders are of the opinion that the growth is bottoming and will see an improvement from here. The hopes have supported the markets from slipping from their levels. However, the rate sensitives’ are still not optimistic as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is unlikely to change its anti-inflationary stance to boost the economy. Back on street, the power sector has surged on the sectoral space after the Power Minister asked for Rs 36,000 crore for meeting the 12th plan targets of providing  electricity to 5,74,000 rural households. Metal index too is trading firm since morning, while oil & gas sector has gained momentum. On the other hand FMCG, realty and technology continued witnessing some profit booking.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,357.20, up by 186.29 or 0.97% and has touched a high and a low of 19,362.47 and 19,186.30 respectively. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.  The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,627 shares on the gaining side against 1,171 shares on the losing side while 127 shares remain unchanged.

The broader indices were trading firm; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 1.18% and 0.87% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.79%, Power up by 1.76%, Oil & Gas up by 1.60%, PSU up by 1.48% and Bankex up by 1.41% while, FMCG down by 0.27% and IT down by 0.04 were the only losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 4.47%, Jindal Steel up by 3.75%, ONGC up by 3.59%, Sterlite Inds up by 3.00% and Tata Steel up by 2.59%.

On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.23%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.13%, Coal India down by 1.12%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.42% and Infosys down by 0.20% were the major losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Oil Ministry has said that it will raise the cap on supply of subsidized cooking gas (LPG) to 9 cylinders per household in a year, if the Finance Ministry agrees to give an additional Rs 3,000 crore to oil companies in 2012-13. Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily met Finance Minister P Chidambaram and then held a long discussion with the head of three PSU fuel retailers for raising the cap of 6 subsidized cylinders per household in a year.

The government in September this year had decided to restrict the supply of subsidized LPG to 6 cylinders of 14.2-kg each to every household in a year. Any requirement beyond this had to be purchased at market rates which are more than double the subsidized price. Only 44% of the households in the country consume 6 cylinders in a year and the rest of them have to purchase between 3 and 6 cylinder at the non subsidized rate.  This has led to furious demands from all quarters to raise the cap on supply of subsidized cylinders; keeping in view the public demand the oil ministry has asked the government to provide Rs 3,000 crore to oil companies for increasing the cap of subsidized cylinders to 9. However the finance ministry is yet to buzz on providing additional subsidy.

Oil companies are already losing over Rs 400 crore per day on selling diesel and cooking fuels below cost and bearing the cost of supplying additional subsidized cylinders will be impossible said oil ministry. Even with 6-cylinder-per-household cap, oil PSUs face an unprecedented revenue loss of over Rs 56,000 crore on sale of diesel, subsidized LPG and kerosene after taking subsidy from government. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,878.35, up by 53.35 points or 0.92% and has touched a high and a low of 5,879.00 and 5,827.85 respectively. There were 38 stocks advancing against 11 declines, while one stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 4.77%, Jindal Steel up by 3.84%, ONGC up by 3.68%, BPCL up by 3.62 and IDFC up by 3.47%.

On the flip side, Ranbaxy was down by 1.96%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.40%, Coal India down by 1.32%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.14% and ACC Cement down by 0.94% were the top losers on the Nifty.

Most of the Asian markets have made a green close on Friday; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.85%, Hang Seng gained 0.49%, KLSE Composite up by 0.22%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.48%, Straits Times gained 0.95% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 1.02%. On the other hand, Jakarta Composite down by 0.99% and Seoul Composite down by 0.10% were the only losers in Asian pack.

The European markets are trading mixed, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.11%, Germany’s DAX was up by 0.24% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 was marginally down by 0.01%.