Benchmarks build on gains; Nifty nears 5700 mark

Contrary to the usual volatility witnessed at the start of F&O expiry week, benchmark equity indices after getting a gap-up start have continued their steady run. The positive sentiment at D-street is mainly on account of global risk-on sentiment and also on Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s decision to ease restrictions for foreign institutional investors in government and corporate bonds next month, lifting the banking shares higher. Barometer 30 share index-Sensex- trading with gains of over century of points, is above 18850 level, likewise, 50 share index, Nifty, too trading with gains of close to 50 points, is nearing the 5700 mark. Broader indices, too gained sufficient traction. On the global front, Asian pacific markets were trading in green on Monday after Cyprus clinched a deal with international lenders for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout, hours before a deadline to avert a financial collapse on the Mediterranean country. Back home, Oil-related shares hogged substantial limelight after Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country's biggest refiner raised diesel prices by about 1 percent from Saturday. Meanwhile, Realty, Public Sector Undertaking and Oil & Gas counters are the best performing sectors on BSE, so far. However, Information Technology, Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters were chink in the armour. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1266:1220, while 123 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18866.74, up by 131.14 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 18950.22 and 18833.39. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 0.85% and 0.49% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.22%, PSU up by 1.95%, Oil & Gas up by 1.88%, Power up by 1.62% and Metal up by 1.36%, while IT down by 0.17%, FMCG down by 0.07% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 4.55%, NTPC up by 2.54%, Jindal Steel up by 2.23%, HDFC up by 2.06% and Sterlite Industries up by 1.73%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.56%, Infosys down by 0.55%, ITC down by 0.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.32% and Wipro down by 0.21% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, expressing confidence that India would be able to achieve 7-8% growth again in next 2-3 years, President Pranab Mukherjee has asked industrialists to keep faith in robust fundamentals of Indian economy. While addressing an event, he said that India's economic growth story is intact and there was no reason to be pessimistic as the government is taking corrective measures to boost the economy’s growth. 

By adding further he said, the country had recorded growth of 9.3% even in the worst global economic scenario and 6.7% in 2008-09 when financial crisis created virtual turmoil in the largest economies of the world and slowed down the business activities of many developed countries.

However, expressed concern over the declining private investment, which was mainly on the back of tight monetary policy adopted by the RBI, which increased the cost of borrowing, thereby making it difficult for the private sector to raise capital. Though tightening of monetary policy between March 2010 and October 2011 was necessary to combat the rising inflation.

Further, Mukherjee also highlighted the need for an inclusive economic growth and said, with inclusive growth, we can contract the widening gap between the poor and rich people. Without inclusive growth, poor are becoming poorer and in India, there are 355 million people live below the poverty line.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,694.65, up by 43.30 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 5,718.40 and 5,682.45. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 5.85%, ONGC up by 4.41%, JP Associates up by 3.23%, Reliance Infra up by 3.00% and BPCL up by 2.88%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.82%, ITC down by 0.74%, Asian Paint down by 0.69%, Infosys down by 0.64% and HCL Technologies down by 0.53% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng advanced 0.73%, Jakarta Composite surged 1.11%, KLSE Composite jumped 0.56%, Nikkei 225 soared 1.69%, Straits Times increased 0.46%, KOSPI Composite added 1.49%, Taiwan Weighted added by 0.77% and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.25%.