Benchmarks trade firm; Nifty hovers close to 6,000 mark

Indian equities pared gains but continued to trade firm in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters thanks to positive cues from European counterparts. The sentiment on the streets continue to remain upbeat on account of improved risk appetite after the US House of Representatives approved a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff, sparking broad-based buying.

The sentiments also got buttressed after reports suggested improvement in the health of the Indian manufacturing sector, with the seasonally adjusted HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index, a composite indicator of operating conditions in the manufacturing economy posting a good advancement in December, surging to its six-month high to 54.7 from 53.7 in November, its biggest monthly rise since January 2012. Further, strength in Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas sector also contributed to the bourses’ strength, while selling was witnessed lone in FMCG sector.

In the scrip specific movement, Tata Motors was trading firm after touching 52-weeks high as one of the international investment banker upgraded the company to buy from neutral and raised its target price. NALCO was trading in green on reports that the government is looking to divest a little more than 12% in the company in February, depending on the company’s financial performance in the third quarter. Indian Overseas Bank edged higher as the bank is planning to raise Rs 800 crore through perpetual bonds in three months. BHEL, the state-owned power equipment make is trading firm since the government has imposed 35% safeguard duty on electrical insulators imported from China.

On the global front, Asian markets were all set for a positive close, while the European markets too were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,950 and 19,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1785:1047 while 129 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19721.62, up by 140.81 points or 0.72% after trading in a range of 19756.23 and 19686.50. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading higher by 0.59% and 0.97% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durable up by 1.68%, Capital Goods up by 1.49%, Oil & Gas up by 1.31%, PSU up by 1.04% and Metal up by 1.04%, while FMCG down by 0.22% was the sole loser.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.90%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.85%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.48%, ONGC up by 2.07% and Gail India up by 1.89%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.68%, Coal India down by 0.61%, ITC down by 0.54%, TCS down by 0.36% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.35% were the losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas after reviewing the international prices of crude oil and petroleum products during the 2nd Fortnight of December 2012 has reported that in first fortnight of January (effective 01.01.2013) under-recovery on High Speed Diesel decreased to Rs 9.03 per litre from the Rs 9.28 per litre in 2nd fortnight in December. In case of Domestic LPG, the under-recovery for January 2013 remains unchanged at Rs 490.50 cylinder. The under-recovery on PDS Kerosene, too, has remained at same level of Rs 30.64 per litre for January 2013.

The Domestic LPG under-recovery in 2nd fortnight declined to Rs 490.50 from Rs 520.50 in 1st fortnight of December. The Under-recovery on PDS Kerosene decreased to Rs 30.64 per litre in 2nd fortnight of December 2012 from 30.93 in 1st fortnight. An additional subsidy of Rs 0.82/litre on PDS Kerosene and Rs 22.58/Cylinder on Domestic LPG is provided by the Government.

The analysis cell has further reported that under-recovery for December on Domestic LPG, and PDS Kerosene remain high and oil marketing companies are currently (effective from 1stJanuary 2013) incurring daily under-recovery of about Rs 389 crore on the sale of Diesel, PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG. This was Rs 420 crore per day for the previous fortnight effective 16.12.2012. Though, crude oil price for Indian Basket went down to $ 108.46 per barrel on 31.12.2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,994.80, up by 43.95 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 6,006.05 and 5,982.00. There were 39 stocks advancing against 10 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up by 3.25%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.14%, BPCL up by 2.78%, BHEL up by 2.73% and Sesa Goa up by 2.62%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.73%, ITC down by 0.61%, Coal India down by 0.57%, Reliance Infrastructure down by 0.54% and TCS down by 0.51% were the top losers on the index

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng soared 2.89%, Jakarta Composite advanced 0.50%, Straits Times surged 1.25%, KOSPI Composite added 1.71% and Taiwan Weighted spurted 1.04%. On the flip side, KLSE Composite down by 0.82% was the lone loser amongst the Asian pack.  Markets in Japan and China remained shut for public holidays and will reopen on Friday.

The European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 added 1.87%, Germany’s DAX ascended 1.56% while the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.34%.