Benchmarks building onto early gains escalate to intra-day’s high level

Building onto early gains, benchmark equity indices have now escalated near intra-day’s high level on account of increased buying by major players in line with a firming trend overseas and covering-up of short positions by speculators ahead of tomorrow’s monthly expiry in the derivatives segment.  Although across the board buying is apparent, stocks from Information Technology counter, bucking the trend, are trading negative. Meanwhile, strong buying in Realty, Capital Goods and Metal counters have fortified the sentiment at D-street.  Luring significant traction, 30 share barometer index, Sensex, on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) puffing over century of points, is trading above 19400 psychological level. Similarly, widely followed index, Nifty, on National Stock Exchange (NSE) too adding close to 50 points is oscillating above 5900 crucial level. However, broader indices have trimmed part of their gains.

On the global front, Asian pacific shares were trading sanguine, despite lack of fresh cues as U.S. and European markets were shut for Christmas, while investors warily eyed the soon-to-resume U.S. budget talks. U.S. lawmakers would return to negotiation after the Christmas holidays in a last ditch attempt to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, a series of spending cuts and tax increases set to go into effect at the start of next year on January 1.

Closer home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19422.13, up by 167.04 points or 0.87% after trading in a range of 19435.80 and 19274.07. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The broader indices trimmed part of their gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading higher by 0.75% and 0.57% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.60%, Capital Goods up by 1.45%, Metal up by 1.16%, Consumer Durables and Bankex up by 1.13%. While, IT down by 0.15% was the sole loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.67%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.26%, Sun Pharma up by 2.19%, Jindal Steel up by 2.05% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.87%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.97%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.93%, Hero Moto Corp down by 0.88%, Infosys down by 0.28% and ONGC down by 0.04% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India’s foreign direct investments (FDI) in the services sector increased by a mere 5 per cent to $3.6 billion during the April-October period this fiscal, as against $3.42 billion for the financial and non-financial services sector during same period of last fiscal. However, the overall FDI inflows has declined by about 27 per during the first seven months of the ongoing financial year to $14.78 billion, from $20.29 billion in the year-ago period. In 2011-12, foreign investment in the services sector which contributes over 50 per cent to India’s GDP rose to $5.21 billion from $3.29 billion in 2010-11.

Meanwhile, sectors that enticed higher FDI during the period under review include hotel and tourism ($3.11 billion), metallurgy ($1.21 billion), construction ($691 million) and automobile ($743 million). Meanwhile, country-wise, high levels of FDI during the period came from Mauritius $6.75 billion, Japan ($1.52 billion), Singapore $1.24 billion, the Netherlands ($1.05 billion) and the UK ($611 million).

According to DIPP, the government is making sustained efforts like including stake holders in policy formation to make the policy the investment regime more attractive and conducive for the investors. Foreign investments are a vital part of India and currently the country requires over $1 trillion by 2017 to overhaul its infrastructure sector such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth.

Apart from increasing the limit to 100 per cent in the single brand retailing, the government has also allowed FDI in multi-brand retail sector. The government has made 30% mandatory sourcing from small and medium enterprises of India for the foreign players in case of FDI in multi-brand retail.

 The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,901.75 up by 46.00 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 5,906.55 and 5,859.55. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The major gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.85%, JP Associates up by 2.56%, Jindal Steel up by 2.11%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.98% and Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.91%.

On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.23%, Wipro down by 0.91%, Hero Moto Corp down by 0.84%, Infosys down by 0.49% and TCS down by 0.29% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Jakarta Composite advanced 0.35%, Nikkei 225 strengthened 1.49%, Straits Times surged 0.47%, KOSPI Composite added 0.02% and Shanghai Composite rose 0.20%.  On the flip side, KLSE Composite and Taiwan Weighted were down by 0.04% and 0.03% respectively.

Hang Seng remained closed for trade today on the account of Christmas Holiday.