Benchmarks ascend to intra-day high level; Nifty pierces past 5900 level

Benchmark equity indices have ascended to intra-day’s high level led by massive gains in Realty, Capital Goods and Power counters, among others. Buying by funds and retail investors in fundamentally strong stocks amid positive regional counterparts have mainly contributed to upward trend at D-street since early deals. Thus benchmark 30 share index, Sensex, is trading above 19500 level, while 50 share index, Nifty, too gaining quarter of percent was oscillating above psychological 5900 level. Meanwhile, broader indices were outperforming the frontline equity indices, trading with gains of over half a percent.

On the global front, Most of the Asian-pacific indices are trading higher on Monday, with Japanese stocks surging after the country avoided criticism of the weakening yen at the Group of Twenty meeting over the weekend, while strong earnings helped the Australian market touch a fresh multi-year high.

Closer home, rally of PSU OMC’s, viz, BPCL, HPCL and IOC, too are adding to the positive side of the bourses. OMC stocks rallied in early trade after state run companies hiked petrol prices by Rs 1.50 per litre and diesel by 45 paise. Meanwhile, Realty counter was trading firm in green led by the gains of real estate major DLF, which rose more than 5% after brokerage houses upgraded the stock despite weak performance in third quarter. On the flip side, Consumer Durable, Information Technology and Technology counters remained the weak links of the trade. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio 1415:1043, while 144 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19533.14, up by 64.99 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 19539.68 and 19462.92. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.58% and Small cap index added 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.14%, CG up by 0.80%, Power up by 0.72%, PSU up by 0.65% and Oil & Gas up by 0.63%. While, Consumer Durables down by 0.53%, IT down by 0.38% and TECk down by 0.27% remained the few losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 1.68%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.47%, Hindalco up by 1.18%, L&T up by 1.17%, and Tata Steel up by 0.85%.

On the flip side, Coal India was down by 1.87%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.11%, TCS was down by 1.02%, Dr Reddy’s down by 0.91%  and  Tata Power was down by 0.67% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with a view to promote the industrial activity and boost economic growth in the next financial year, the government is considering to expand the definition of infrastructure sector. It is expected that in the coming budget the definition of infrastructure, in the Income Tax Act and Direct Taxes Code can be expanded to include more areas to boost economic growth. Finance Minister P Chidambaram will present the budget for 2013-14 in the Lok Sabha on February 28.

To ensure substantial impact on industrial development, economic growth and to attract overseas capital, the areas on which the country is focusing in a big way needed to be given the infrastructure sector status. Further, industry has also been demanding that definition of infrastructure be expanded to include some of the key sectors like housing, shipping, telecom and education.

With regard to revenue implications on giving infrastructure status to more sectors, the probable losses can be made up by better performance of non-infrastructure sectors. Several countries like Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, and Thailand have earlier provided incentives that led to rapid growth of infrastructure sector. Moreover, infrastructure sector status ensures tax benefit and easier access to domestic and global funding.

Currently, the government has planned a staggering sum of investments for the infrastructure sectors like roads, highways, ports, airports, railways and power. In order to boost infrastructure sector projects, the government has already set up a Cabinet Committee on Investments (CCI) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India's infrastructure sector will require investment of about $1 trillion in the 12th Five Year Plan, (2012-2017) with half of it is expected to come from the private sector.

Further, the government is also trying to support the manufacturing sector by boosting infrastructure spending as the factory output declined by 0.7 percent in April-December period of current fiscal, while, the growth was 4 percent in the same period of 2011-12 fiscal.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,901.30 up by 13.90 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 5,906.80 and 5,878.45. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 4.26%, JP Associates up by 2.37%, Power Grid up by 1.75%, HDFC up by 1.53% and HUL up by 1.48%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.96%, Axis Bank down by 1.26%, Jindal Steel down by 1.22%, HCL Tech down by 1.12%, and Ambuja Cement down by 1.07%, were the major losers on the index.

Most Asian equity indices were trading higher; Shanghai Composite rose 0.12%, Nikkei 225 soared 2.09%, KOSPI Composite up by 0.03%, Straits Times up by 0.04% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.47%.

On the flip side, Hang Seng declined by 0.23%, Jakarta Composite dipped 0.09% and KLSE Composite slipped by 0.26%.