Benchmarks trade near day’s high; Nifty trades above 5700 mark

Persistent buying from institutional investors buoyed the spirit at D-street, with benchmark equity indices now trading near day’s high point. Positive opening of European counterparts, besides firm Asian markets is also adding to the upside of local bourses. European shares, snapping three days losing streak, have made a positive start as investors grabbed bargains after a steep three-session selloff, reassured by better-than-expected results from US and European companies. Back home, encouraging results of HCL Technologies and Yes Bank, is underpinning the sentiment. Benchmark 30 share index Sensex, is trading with triple digit gains, above its crucial 18800 level, while Nifty too, is comfortably above the 5700 mark, with gains of close to 50 points.

Broader indices outperforming the frontline equity indices are trading with gains of over 0.75%. Sectorally, Realty, Metal and Banking counters are the towers of strength, while, Oil & Gas and Information Technology counters remain the weak spell. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which are outnumbering declines in the ratio of 1222:799, while 119 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18858.41, up by 113.48 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 18869.88 and 18,703.26. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 0.89% and 0.84% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.93%, Metal up by 1.85%,Bankex up by 1.84%, PSU up by 1.34% and Health Care up by 1.29% while, Oil & Gas down by 0.79%, IT down by 0.73% and Teck down by 0.44% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 4.00%, Sun Pharma up by 3.56%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.28%, ICICI Bank up by 2.86% and SBI up by 2.48%.

On the flip side, RIL down by 2.69%, TCS was down by 1.61%, Tata Power up by 1.09%, Wipro up by 0.69% and Infosys down by 0.61% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, Indian economy is projected to grow by 5.7% in 2013 and 6.2% in the next year as against world output growth of 3.25% and 4% respectively in the same period. Further, global prospects have improved again however the road to recovery in the advanced economies still remains uneven.

To be more precise, emerging market and developing economies are still going strong, but in advanced economies, there appears to be a growing split between the US on one hand and the euro-zone on the other. Emerging and developing economies are expected to grow by 5.3% in 2013 and 5.7% in 2014, while growth in the US is projected to be 1.9% in 2013 and 3% in 2014.

Referring to the Euro-zone growth outlook, the report said growth in the euro area is forecast to be -0.3% in 2013 and 1.1% in 2014. The forecast for negative growth in the euro-zone reflects not only weakness in the periphery but also some weakness in the core businessesThe CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,731.90, up by 42.95 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 5,732.15 and 5,682.25. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sesa Goa up by 4.43%, Sun Pharma up by 3.72%, M&M up by 3.40%, ICICI Bank up by 2.89% and Ambuja Cements up by 2.83%.

On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.58%, TCS down by 1.42%, HCL Technologies down by 1.21%, Tata Power down by 0.94% and Ranbaxy down by 0.88% were the major losers on the index.

The most of Asian equity indices were trading in green; Jakarta Composite rose 0.75%, KLSE Composite surged 0.60%, Nikkei 225 soared 1.22%, Hang Seng rose 0.40%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.10%, KOSPI Composite up by 0.08% and Straits Times was up by 0.19%.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite down by 0.14% was the only loser.