Markets extend early gains; HCL Tech jumps on Q3 numbers

Indian equity markets extended early gains in the late morning session amid alternate bouts of buying and selling in cautious trades. The Sensex gained 0.45%, while Nifty was up 23.55 points. Investors remained cautious ahead of the US earnings season and uncertainty over the policy rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India. In currency markets, Indian rupee recovered against greenback in the late morning session on the back of dollar selling by the banks and exporters. On sectoral front, technology shares were trading strong as HCL Technologies beat estimates with a 68.4% jump in quarterly profit. Realty, automobile and oil sectors were trading firm, those from capital goods, metal and healthcare sections were a bit weak. In global markets, most Asian shares were trading in red on Thursday as some investors cashed in their chips following recent rallies, putting aside a Federal Reserve survey that found the US economy improved in 2012 and better-than-expected Wall Street earnings. Back home, the market breadth favoring negative trend; there were 1,157 shares on the gaining side against 1,227 shares on the losing side while 132 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,906.28 up by 88.65 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 19,920.18 and 19,783.41. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.18% and Small cap index was up by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.65%, TECk up by 1.50%, Oil & Gas up by 1.18%, Realty up by 1.15% and Auto up by 0.80%. While, Capital Goods down by 0.57%, Metal down by 0.55%, Health Care down by 0.24% and Power down by 0.05% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 3.02%, Tata Motors up by 2.87%, ONGC up by 1.60%, TCS up by 1.58% and Reliance up by 1.22%.

On the flip side, Cipla was down by 1.49%, Hindalco Industries was down by 1.22%, Hero Moto Corp was down by 1.05%, Sterlite Inds was down by 1.03% and HDFC was down by 0.97% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet is likely to consider the petroleum ministry’s proposals to raise diesel, cooking gas and kerosene prices in its meeting scheduled on Jan 17. If the Cabinet approves Oil Ministry’s proposal for fuel prices hike then the new prices will be effective from the midnight Jan 17.

The ministry's note to Cabinet is based on recommendation of the Vijay Kelkar Committee, which was appointed by the finance ministry to suggest a roadmap for fiscal consolidation. The committee had recommended an immediate hike in price of diesel by Rs 4 per litre, kerosene by Rs 2 a litre and LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder.

Regarding LPG cylinders, it has proposed to raise LPG rates by Rs 100 per 14.2-kg cylinder in two installments to make up the loss of Rs 490.50 per bottle being incurred currently. To cover the entire losses, from April onward, oil ministry has proposed for quarterly increase of Rs 50 per cylinder and Rs 1 a litre increase on diesel for every month till such time that the current losses are wiped-off.

Additionally, ministry has also proposed raising kerosene price by 35 paise a litre per month or Re 1 a litre per quarter till March 2015. Presently, state-owned oil companies are incurring loss of Rs 490.50 for one LPG cylinder, Rs 10.16 per litre for diesel and kerosene at Rs 32.17 a litre. Meanwhile, in Delhi region, current price of diesel is Rs 47.15 per litre, kerosene costs at 14.79 per litre and subsidized LPG cylinder costs 410.50 per 14.2 kg cylinder. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,025.40 up by 23.55 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 6,029.45 and 5,988.10. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 4.52%, Wipro up by 3.05%, Tata Motors up by 2.86% DLF up by 2.27%, and IDFC up by 1.75%.

On the flip side, ACC down by 1.91%, Ranbaxy down by 1.72%, Cipla down by 1.56%, Reliance Infrastructure down by 1.51%, Hindalco down by 1.34% and were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.75%, Hang Seng dropped 0.06%, Nikkei 225 tumbled 0.32%, Straits Times contracted 0.29%, KOSPI Composite decreased 0.10% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.09%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.06% and KLSE Composite up 0.02%.