Benchmarks trade near day’s high; Sensex above 18800 level

Benchmark equity indices, extending gains, are now trading near day’s high, on continued buying activities by funds and retail investors on back of positive news flow. Persistent drop in the global crude oil and gold prices, which continued to keep up hopes of a rate cut by the RBI in early May mainly was propping the sentiment at D-Street. Meanwhile, rally of mining shares, viz, Kalyani Steel, JSW Steel and Sesa Goa, after Supreme Court lifted a one-and-a-half-year old iron ore mining ban in Karnataka, also underpinned investor’s sentiment. Additionally, positive start of European shares added to the positive sentiments. European counterparts edged higher on Thursday, with some investors seeing value after the market's worst four-day fall in nine months, though a batch of weak earnings from US and global growth concerns kept a lid on the gains.

Closer home, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the psychological 18,800 and 5700 levels respectively with gains of close to half a percent. On macro-front, although India’s exports fell 1.76 percent to $300.6 billion in the fiscal year 2012-13, the first decline since 2009/10, it came above the street estimates. Sectorally, Capital Goods, Realty and Banking counters were the top performers of the session, while Metal, Consumer Durable and Information Technology were the laggards. The overall market breadth on BSE in the favour of advances which have thumped declines in the ratio of 1094:928, while 133 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18845.49, up by 114.33 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 18864.21 and 18691.61. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index was up by 0.30% and 0.32% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.39%, Realty up by 0.87%, Bankex up by 0.82%, Oil & Gas up by 0.54% and FMCG up by 0.48%, while, Metal down by 0.76%, Consumer Durables down by 0.54% and IT down by 0.37% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.27%, L&T up by 2.01%, HDFC up by 1.74%, Tata Motors up by 1.58% and SBI up by 1.15%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.99%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.55%, Jindal Steel down by 1.32%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.02% and Tata Steel down by 0.71% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, stepping back from its stance on imposing a total ban on mining in Karnataka State on account of environmental concerns, the Supreme Court (SC) has cleared the long awaited verdict on the Category A and B iron ore mining in Bellary district of Karnataka. However, the ban continues to remain in the Category C mining in Bellary and post this ruling about 49 mining leases in Category C stand cancelled.

The SC, back in September 2012, allowed 18 mines in Karnataka to resume operations on the basis of the recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC). This time around also accepting the committee’s recommendations, Category B mines were allowed to restart mining subject to necessary statutory clearances. Thus, after this decision, iron ore production in nine Karnataka mines will resume operations.

In July last year, the court had banned all mining operations holding that right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution would include a pollution-free environment. It had also ordered a CBI probe into alleged illegal mining activities of former Karnataka Minister G Janardhana Reddy in Obulapuram, Andhra Pradesh and former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.

However, country’s iron ore exports to China shrank to just over 30 million tonnes last year as a clampdown on illegal mining, and exports from Karnataka slashed output and shipments, prompting steelmakers to operate below capacity.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,723.00, up by 34.30 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 5,728.60 and 5,681.85. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.18%, Axis Bank up by 2.25%, Ranbaxy up by 2.10%, HDFC up by 1.94% and L&T up by 1.89%.

On the flip side, NMDC down by 2.76%, JP Associates down by 1.41%, Hero Moto Co down by 1.28%, Power Grid down by 1.22% and Jindal Steel down by 1.13% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng slipped 0.14% KLSE Composite decreased 0.11%, Nikkei 225 dropped 1.22%, KOSPI Composite contracted 1.24%, Straits Times declined 0.10% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.23%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite up by 0.12% and Jakarta Composite up by 0.15% were the only losers.

European shares got off to a positive start; with CAC 40 gaining 0.55%, FTSE100 adding 0.21% and DAX rising by 0.42%