Indian equities add gains; Sensex surpasses 20,000 level

Indian equity markets added gains to continue firm trade hovering near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters and taking cues from European counterparts. The sentiments on the street were on upbeat mood after India’s annual industrial output growth measured by index of industrial production (IIP) grew by 2.5% at 192.3 for the month of March 2013 higher than previous month’s growth figure of 0.6%, later revised to 0.5%, and in-line with street estimates of over 2% figure. C Rangarajan, Chairman, PMEAC stated that with industrial output data showing signs of improvement, he believes that the Indian economy seems to be on the mend. The sentiments did get a hit in between after SIAM released a data showing that car sales fell 6th month in a row by 10% in April. Traders were seen piling position in Auto, Consumer Durables and Bankex sector stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal and Realty sector stocks.  In scrip specific development, HT Media, publishers of the Hindustan Times newspaper, was trading firm after the company announced that its board would consider on May 14 a share buyback.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green barring KOSPI Composite and Taiwan Weighted while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,050 and 20,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 841:824, while 78 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,070.69, up by 131.65 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 20,096.97 and 19,908.80. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The broader indices added more ground; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading higher by 0.20% and 0.37% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 2.19%, Consumer Durables up by 1.67%, Bankex up by 0.97%, FMCG up by 0.86% and PSU up by 0.53% while Metal down by 0.19% and Realty down by 0.12% were the only losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.68%, Tata Motors up by 2.94%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.45%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.03% and ONGC up by 1.99%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.65%, Jindal Steel down by 1.89%, Sun Pharma down by 1.39%, Cipla was down by 1.05% and HDFC down by 0.54% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the proposed Mines Act 1952 (amendments) has been referred to the Group of Ministers (GoM) for consideration following members of the Cabinet expressed different views on making the Chief Executive or the Chairman responsible for mishaps as proposed in the Labour Ministry's bill.

As per the Mining Act 1952, in case of an accident, a clause in the Mining Act provides for heavy fines and long term imprisonment of managers of the mines for violation of safety norms. Therefore, the members are of the view that the issue should be left to the board to decide on whom to nominate for liability in case of an accident.  

The Bill also proposes to amend and consolidate the law relating to regulation of condition of work and welfare of persons employed in mines and for the matter connected therewith. The Act was last amended in 1983 and subsequent to the amendments, several developments in the area of technology, scale of operations, working environment and work practices in coal, non-coal and oil sector have taken place and thus forced the government to further amend it.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,091.35, up by 41.20 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 6,096.65 and 6,045.60. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.97%, Tata Motors up by 2.97%, Lupin up by 2.51%, M&M up by 2.43% and IndusInd Bank up 2.28%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.62%, Jindal Steel down by 1.98%, PNB down by 1.57%, Sun Pharma down by 1.39%, Cipla down by 1.10% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.62%, Hang Seng added 0.47%, KLSE Composite jumped 0.25%, Nikkei 225 soared 2.93%, Jakarta Composite inched up by 0.13% and Straits Times was up by 0.23%.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite dropped 1.75% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.07%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.66%, Germany’s DAX added 0.79% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.39%.