Barometer gauges prune partial losses; Sensex reclaims 19k level

Moving in a narrow range, benchmark equity indices have pruned partial losses on emergence of fresh buying activity of select blue chip stocks thanks to heartening statement by country’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, that government will take all the decisive action to push growth to 8 per cent. Terming the 5 per cent GDP expansion as clearly disappointing, Prime Minister made a case for speedy and decisive actions to achieve 8 per cent economic growth. After all the attempts of recovery, Sensex reclaimed its 19k level, with Nifty too nearing the 5,750 crucial mark. Meanwhile, broader indices continue to trade upbeat. Sectorally, Power, Health Care and Realty counters are the major pillars of support, while, Auto, Teck and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters continue to languish at the bottom. The market breadth was favoring positive trend; there were 1,479 shares on the gaining side against 852 shares on the losing side while 104 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,018.38, down by 22.57 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 19,035.20 and 18,947.37. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 0.55% and 0.89% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.23%, Health Care up by 0.91%, Realty up by 0.39%, Bankex up by 0.27% and PSU up by 0.25% while, Auto down by 0.84%, Teck down by 0.33%, FMCG down by 0.29%, Consumer Durables down by 0.27% and Oil & Gas down by 0.09% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.82%, Sun Pharma up by 2.33%, BHEL up by 1.89%, NTPC up by 1.77% and Jindal Steel up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 3.08%, Bajaj Auto was down by 2.13%, Tata Motors was down by 1.69%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.27%, HDFC was down by 1.09% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to expedite improvement of infrastructure and reduce the time and cost of travel for traffic besides improving employment potential for local labourers,  the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved four road projects worth Rs 4,620 crore in Assam and Madhya Pradesh for the widening of National Highways.

The committee also gave approval for four-laning of the Jabalpur-Bhopal section of NH-12 under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) -toll mode of delivery worth Rs 2,687 crore. Of the four road projects, three in Assam is for widening of stretches of National Highways 37 under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North Eastern Region (SARDP-NE) at a cost of Rs 1,933 crore on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis in BOT (Annuity) mode of delivery.

The projects include widening of Jorhat to Demow section at a cost of Rs 874.69 crore, Numaligarh to Jorhat section at a cost of Rs 584.68 and Demow to Bogibil junction section of NH 37. Further, the project cost in all the three schemes excludes land acquisition and other pre-construction activities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,736.60 down by 11.50 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 5,743.85 and 5,720.50. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 4.83%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.20%, BHEL up by 1.94%, NTPC up by 1.60% and Reliance Infrastructure up by 1.44%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.15%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.34%, Tata Motors down by 2.08%, Bajaj-Auto down by 1.97% and NMDC down by 1.80% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in mixed; Jakarta Composite up by 0.24%, Straits Times up by 0.11%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.37% and Nikkei 225 was up by 2.99%. On the flip side, Hang Seng down by 0.12%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.33%, KLSE Composite down by 0.83%, and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.15%.