Benchmarks trade higher; Aviation stocks fly high

Key domestic benchmarks have made a positive start on the expiry day of the April F&O series. Both the frontline gauges re-conquered their crucial 5,850 (Nifty) and 19,300 (Sensex) levels as investors got some boost from Finance minister P Chidambaram’s statement to reach out to the main opposition BJP and other political parties seeking their support to get crucial legislations approved in the ongoing budget session. He has said that the government is keen to get the insurance, food security and land acquisition legislations approved by Parliament to sustain the reform momentum. Sentiments also remained upbeat as investors expect that the Reserve Bank of India will cut interest rates by 25-50 basis points on May 3, 2013 in its monetary policy meet as WPI inflation eased to 3-year low in March.

Global risk appetite too remained firm on hopes of aggressive monetary policy easing by the European Central Bank next week, as economic data continued to hint towards sluggish growth. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the positive terrain with Japanese benchmark surging over half a percent on expectations that yen weakness will spur strong earnings growth for Japanese firms. Meanwhile, South Korean shares edged higher by about half a percent after country’s economy grew the most in two years in the first quarter as the government front-loaded spending and exporters weathered the slide in the yen that aids rivals in Japan.

Back home, sentiments also remained underpinned after Aviation stocks like, Jet Airways, Spicejet, and Kingfisher Airlines edged higher on report that India has agreed to enhance seat entitlements to and from Abu Dhabi multiple times despite political opposition. On the sectoral front, auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by oil and gas and public sector undertaking while, software, technology and consumer durables remained the top loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 842 shares on the gaining side against 438 shares on the losing side while 65 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,192.11; about 12 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,179.36, and has touched a high and a low of 19,338.78 and 19,192.11 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,319.79, up by 140.43 points or 0.73%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 62.60% stocks advancing against 32.57% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.77% and 0.41% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.52%, Oil & Gas up by 1.52%, PSU up by 1.12%, Bankex up by 1.09% and Power up by 0.92% while, IT down by 1.24%, Teck down by 0.60% and Consumer Durables down by 0.03% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.68%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.48%, Gail India up by 2.33%, ICICI Bank up by 2.11% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.79%.

On the flip side, TCS was down by 1.94%, Wipro was down by 1.12%, Infosys was down by 0.67%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.34% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.13% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted permission to Navratna Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) - ONGC Videsh (OVL) and Oil India (OIL) to make investments in the overseas incorporated Joint Ventures/Wholly Owned Subsidiaries in the oil sector.

Investments made by these PSUs for analyzing and drilling for oil and natural gas, duly approved by the Government of India, will be without any limits under the automatic route.

Earlier, OVL and OIL were allowed to invest only in overseas unincorporated entities in oil sector without any limits under the automatic route.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,856.10; about 19 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,836.90, and has touched a high and a low of 5,889.60 and 5,853.30 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,886.25, up by 49.35 points or 0.85%. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.74%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 2.71%, Gail up by 2.67%, Axis Bank up by 2.57% and IndusInd Bank up by 2.50%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 2.02%, HCL Tech down by 1.31%, Infosys down by 0.93%, Ranbaxy down by 0.78% and DLF down by 0.51%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in Green; Shanghai Composite rose 3.79 points or 0.17% to 2,222.11, Hang Seng surged 246.54 points or 1.11% to 22,429.59, Nikkei 225 jumped 83.44 points or 0.60% to 13,926.90, Straits Times strengthened 8.47 points or 0.25% to 3,331.18 and KOSPI Composite was up by 9.16 points or 0.47% to 1,944.47.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declined 21.22 points or 0.42% to 4,990.39, KLSE Composite decreased 1.33 points or 0.08% to 1,706.02 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.54 points or 0.02% to 8,022.17.