Markets add more ground; Nifty steadily approaches crucial 6,000 mark

Markets regaining vitality have recovered some more ground on account of hectic buying activity, since recent dip’s of benchmarks have presented investors an opportunity to enter into the markets at lower levels. Further, even positive start of European counterparts has provided the required fillip to Indian equity markets. Benchmark 30-share index, Sensex, adding over 50 points, is comfortably cruising past above 19,700 level, while 50-share index, Nifty, gaining close to 25 points, is steadily approaching the crucial 6,000 mark. Broader indices, too showing some traction, have notched higher. On the global front, European shares bounced back on Friday as bargain hunters moved in following the market's biggest one-day drop in nearly a year, betting that the sharp five-week rally fuelled by central bank liquidity will soon resume.

Closer home, stocks from Capital Goods, Realty and Power counters are supporting the recovery of markets, while those from Health Care, Information Technology counters are attempting to limit them. Larsen & Toubro, which climbed 3% as sell-off in the previous two sessions were seen as overdone, mainly lifted the Capital Good pivotal higher. The overall market breadth on BSE is in favour of advances, which have outpaced declines in the ratio of 1034:920; while 131 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,733.83, up by 59.50 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 19,833.14 and 19,568.49. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index was up by 0.48% and 0.27% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.89%, Realty up by 1.55%, Power up by 1.27%, Bankex up by 1.23% and Metal up by 1.06%, while HealthCare down by 0.85%, IT down by 0.61%, and TECk down by 0.54% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.17%, L&T up by 3.02%, ICICI Bank up by 2.61%, Tata Power up by 2.21% and NTPC up by 1.75%.

On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 2.84%, Hindalco Inds was down by 2.43%, TCS was down by 1.49%, Cipla was down by 1.30% and BHEL was down by 1.12% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, after approving a record Rs 100,000 crore towards diesel and cooking fuel subsidy in 2012-13, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, cash payouts to oil firms for this financial year will be just Rs 20,000 crore. The government has budgeted only Rs 65,000 crore for fuel subsidy for this fiscal.

The three public-sector fuel retailers such as Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), Indian Oil (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) lost Rs 161,029 crore in 2012-13 on selling domestic LPG, diesel and kerosene at government controlled rates which are way below market price. However, with Wednesday's Rs 45,000 crore, the government has committed to make good Rs 100,000 crore out of this. Another Rs 60,000 crore will be chipped in by upstream firms.

Meanwhile, there remained unmet under-recovery or revenue loss of about Rs 60,000 crore and the upstream firms are expected to chip in another Rs 15,000 crore, while 45,000 crore will come from finance ministry from this fiscal budget, leaving just Rs 20,000 crore. Also, upstream firms will be expected to chip in Rs 60,000 crore, equal to what they did in 2012-13. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,993.50, up by 26.45 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 6,015.30 and 5,936.80. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.09%, Lupin up by 3.29%, Reliance Infra up by 2.99%, L&T up by 2.75% and ICICI Bank up by 2.62%.

On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.85%, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 2.82%, TCS down by 1.52%, BHEL down by 1.43% and Cipla down by 1.29% and were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.46%, Jakarta Composite strengthened 0.59% and KOSPI Composite was up by 0.22%. On the flip side, Hang Seng was down by 0.07%, Taiwan was down by 0.34% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.89%.

Stock markets in Malaysia, Singapore remained closed for a public holiday.

European markets got off to a positive start; with CAC 40 gaining 0.51%, DAX adding 0.35% and FTSE 100 rising by 0.19%.