Benchmarks trade in green tracking supportive global cues; IIP data eyed

Indian equity markets have made a positive opening with frontline indices reclaiming their crucial 19,400 (Sensex) and 5,900 (Nifty) levels amid supportive global cues. Overnight, the US markets extended their gains taking positive cues from some upbeat economic data from the Europe and hopes that Fed will announce a new round of Treasury bond purchases when its two days meeting ends on Wednesday. While, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time thanks to strong overnight performances in global equities and firmer economic sentiment in Germany buoyed sentiment.

Back home, investors remained optimistic ahead of IIP data for the month of October. It’s being said that India’s industrial production likely increased by 5.3-5.4 per cent, its fastest annual pace in nearly a year after shockingly contracting by 0.4 per cent in September. However, the gains remained capped as some cautiousness was being witnessed after Standard & Poor’s warned again that India still faced one-in-three chance of downgrade in its sovereign rating to junk grade over the next 24 months. Meanwhile, shares of three public sector oil marketing companies declined as the government is considering raising the cap on the number of subsidised LPG cylinders available to households to nine per year.

Most of the sectoral indices were trading with a positive bias. Software, Technology and Auto indices are the notable gainers. Healthcare, metal, consumer durables, FMCG and oil and gas indices have gained moderately as well. However, banking and power remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral indices. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 994 shares on the gaining side against 716 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19432.54; about 45 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19387.14, and has touched a high and a low of 19478.79 and 19478.79 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19421.08, up by 33.94 points or 0.18%. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 55.78% stocks advancing against 40.18% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.11% and 0.33% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.24%, TECk up by 0.86%, AUTO up by 0.71%, Metal up by 0.33% and Healthcare up by 0.23%.

On the other hand, Power down by 0.26%, BANKEX down by 0.24%, PSU down by 0.19%, CD down by 0.16% and Realty down by 0.13% were the top losers on the Sensex.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.95%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.80%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.38%, Wipro up by 1.34% and TCS up by 1.11%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.52, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.48, Tata Power was down by 1.26, NTPC was down by 1.17 and ONGC was down by 0.83 were  the top loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, a gloomy economic growth outlook, high interest rates along with rising ownership costs are taking a toll on Auto industry, as Car sales in India has slumped to 8.25 percent in November. Sales which grew at their fastest pace in 22 months in October, during the annual festive season that began in September and peaked in November, only to leave them highly disappointed for the succeeding months.

According to November sales data of automobiles released by SIAM, total sales of vehicles across categories registered growth of 1.79 per cent at 15.16 lakh units as against 14.89 lakh units in the same month last year. The overall growth in domestic sales during April-November 2012 was 4.80 percent over the same period last year.

Total passenger vehicles sales grew by only 3.86 percent in November 2012 over same month last year, while for cumulative period of April-November 2012, it grew at 9.62 percent over same period last year. In the passenger car segment, sales fell by 8.25 per cent to 1.58 lakh units last month from 1.72 lakh units in the same month last year. Passenger cars, which include sedans and hatchbacks, grew by a mere 1.28 per cent as compared to the same period last year, while vans grew by 1.04 per cent. Utility vehicles (including SUVs and MUVs), grew by a robust 61.69 per cent over last year. Nine of the 19 carmakers reported shrinking volumes and these included heavyweights like Hyundai, Tata Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors. Car sales grew just 1.3 percent in the April-November period from a year previously.

The overall Commercial Vehicles segment registered growth of 2.73 percent in April-November 2012 as compared to the same period last year. While Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs) registered decline at (-16.34) percent, Light Commercial Vehicles grew at 16.98 percent. In November 2012 M&HCVs sales declined by (-33.22) percent over November 2011.

Further, three Wheelers sales grew by 4.84 percent in April-November 2012, while, two Wheelers sales registered a growth of only 4.05 percent during April-November 2012. Scooters, mopeds and motorcycles sales grew by 20.06 percent, 2.92 percent and 0.29 percent respectively over same period last year. In the month of November 2012 Scooters, Mopeds and Motorcycles grew by 6.64 percent, -2.15 percent and 0.05 percent respectively over same period last year.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,917.80; about 19 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,898.80, and has touched a high and a low of 5,924.60 and 5,900.45 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,907.95, up by 9.15 points or 0.16%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were M&M up by 1.80%, Bajaj-Auto up by 1.76%, TCS up by 1.58%, Hero Motocorp up by 1.44% and WIPRO up by 1.41%.

On the flip side, Ultra cement down by 1.38%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.32%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.11%, BPCL down by 0.95% and ONGC down by 0.89%, were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets trade in green Hang Seng gained 117.72 points or 0.53% to 22,441.66, Jakarta Composite was higher by Up 5.26 points or 0.12% to 4,324.72, KLSE Composite was up by 5.33 points or 0.32% to 1,646.90, Straits Times was up by 17.17 points or 0.50% to 3,135.50 Seoul Composite was up by 7.50 points or 0.38% to 1,972.12. Nikkei 225 gain 70.39 points or 0.74% to 9,595.71 and Taiwan Weighted was trading higher by 59.14 points or 0.78% to 7,670.92.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 2.68 points or 0.13% to 2,072.03 are the sole loser in Asian pack.