Local markets climb to day’s high; Nifty crosses 5700 mark

Barometer gauges, enticing positivity , have added some more ground on account of positive opening of European counterparts, which encouraged investors to go for some fundamentally strong blue chip stocks. European markets made an optimistic start before Cypriot government officials meet with representatives of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to seek easier bailout terms. Back home, near day’s high Sensex is trading above the psychological 18900 mark, with gains of over 75 points, likewise 50 Share index Nify, too adding gains of close to 15 points, once again crossed 5700 mark. Meanwhile, investors are also quite upbeat on second-line shares which have led Small cap and Midcap index rally over 0.75% each. Sectorally, Health Care, Oil & Gas and Metal counters are acting as the major pillars of strength, while Realty, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Auto counters continue to trade downbeat. Meanwhile, sugar stocks, Bajaj Hindustan, Shree Renuka Sugars, Balrampur Chini Mills and Dhampur Sugar Mills, continue to hog limelight on hopes that the government may soon remove some curbs on the tightly controlled sector. Additionally, PSU OMCs reversing morning losses are trading with gains despite slashing petrol prices by a rupee from Tuesday. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which have thumped declines in the ratio of 1622:858, while 97 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18943.24, up by 78.49 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 18948.56 and 18826.53. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The broader indices too added some more ground; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 0.84% and 1.21% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Health Care up by 1.48%, Oil & Gas up by 1.41%, Metal up by 1.37%, Capital Goods up by 1.34% and Consumer Durables up by 1.17%, while Realty down by 0.88%, Auto down by 0.37% and FMCG down by 0.30% were the top losers on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.72%, Wipro up by 2.98%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.84%, Cipla up by 1.68% and ONGC up by 1.67%.  On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.98%, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.67%, HDFC was down by 0.64%, Tata Power was down by 0.63% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.50% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is expected to discuss a proposal on sugar decontrol on April 02, a decision on which has been pending for long. With this move, the government is planning to partially release the Rs 80,000 crore Indian sugar sector from its control. Under the present levy sugar system, mills are required to sell 10 percent of their output to the government at cheaper rates to run ration shops, costing Rs 3,000 crore to the industry annually.

Sugar industry is the only sector which is controlled by the government right from the production through marketing of sugarcane and sugar. If the proposal gets accepted, then the government would have to buy sugar from the open market and continue to sell at a subsidized price through ration shops. India, the world's second biggest sugar producer, is expected to produce 24.5 million tonnes of sugar in 2012-13 marketing year (October-September).

Earlier in October 2012, the expert panel headed by PMEAC Chairman C Rangarajan had recommended immediate removal of two major controls - regulated release mechanism (fixing sugarcane price) and levy sugar obligation. It also suggested giving freedom to mills to sell sugar in the open market and having a stable export and import policy.

However, the finance ministry has expressed the concerns over the sharp rise in subsidy burden if the system is dismantled as then government would have to share the entire burden of distributing cheap sugar through ration. Presently, this burden is shared between Centre and mills.The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,717.15, down by 12.75 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 5,722.55 and 5,687.15. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.92%, Sesa Goa up by 2.84%, Cairn up by 2.20%, IDFC up by 2.07% and Bank of Baroda up by 1.80%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.11%, Bajaj-Auto down by 1.65%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.50%, DLF down by 1.44%, and Axis Bank down by 1.34% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite decreased 0.43%, Nikkei 225 dropped 1.08%, Straits Times down by 0.03% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.49%.

On the flip side, Hang Seng gained 0.19%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.33%, KLSE Composite up by 0.54% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.18%.

European shares too have got off to a positive start; with CAC 40 gaining 0.36%, DAX adding 0.21% and FTSE100 climbing higher by 0.14%.