Benchmarks trade higher in early deals on Monday

After making cautious start, Indian equity indices are trading in fine fettle in Monday’s morning deals as sentiments got some support from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement that government is trying to remove investment bottlenecks, which is holding up the growth. He further added that India’s economic growth would accelerate to 6-6.5 percent in the current financial year as compared to around five percent growth registered in the previous year. Some support also came in from buying in Oil and Gas space ahead of an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meet on May 28, 2013 to consider abolishing the priority ranking in natural gas allocation so that fuel currently consumed by urea plants can also be diverted to fuel-starved power plants. Further, volumes would remain on the higher side as today being the expiry of May F&O series.

However, global cues remain mixed with the US markets ending mostly in red overnight, though there was some recovery on getting good durable goods orders but concern about Federal Reserve withdrawing stimulus kept looming large. Meanwhile, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green at this point of time gaining strength from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s statement that the country won’t sacrifice environment for short term growth.

Back home, buying was also seen in PSU counter as the government is working out norms for utilization of surplus funds of cash-rich PSUs with a view to boost investment and promote growth. On the sectoral front, oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by healthcare and consumer durables while, auto and capital goods remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,031 shares on the gaining side against 381 shares on the losing side while 41 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,750.67; about 46 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,704.33, and has touched a high and a low of 19,850.86 and 19,678.31 respectively. The index is currently trading at 19,841.09, up by 136.76 points or 0.69%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 70.96% stocks advancing against 26.22% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.84% and 0.97% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.63%, Health Care up by 1.04%, Consumer Durables up by 0.97%, Teck up by 0.90% and Realty up by 0.73% while, Auto down by 0.55% and Capital Goods down by 0.10% were the only loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were RIL up by 3.38%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.99%, Sun Pharma up by 2.32%, HDFC Bank up by 1.50% and Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.37%.

On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.59%, Cipla was down by 1.02%, Bajaj Auto was down by 0.86%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.81% and  Wipro was down by 0.76% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the coal ministry has opposed the proposal of Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to form a panel to look into issues with regard to the quality of coal being supplied to power utilities, saying that it would apparently be at variance with the already laid down system and procedures under Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA).

Coal Additional Secretary, A K Dubey said, the coal is being supplied under a legally enforceable FSA and any dispute on coal supply under it has to be resolved through a resolution mechanism provided in the agreement itself. Further, the FSA mechanism provides for joint sampling and analysis at the loading end with a mechanism for resolution of disputes on coal quality issues.

By adding further, Dubey said that Coal India (CIL) has major issues such as payment default and huge outstanding payment with thermal power plants and till now over Rs 8,600 crore has been unilaterally held up by power companies in violation of the provisions of the FSA.

Regarding the coal quality improvement, the coal secretary said, decision has been taken to conduct third-party sampling of coal supplies and CIL has already given a deadline of September 30 to implement it. Moreover, the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR) is also doing an independent sample analysis on coal quality.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,989.40; about 5 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,983.55, and has touched a high and a low of 6,029.25 and 5,975.55 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 6,021.80, up by 38.25 points or 0.64%. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 3.67%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.27%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.49%, IndusInd Bank up by 2.11% and HDFC Bank up by 1.56%.

On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.31%, M&M down by 1.64%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.36%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.23% and Cipla down by 1.22% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.23 points or 0.01% to 2,288.76, Hang Seng increased 50.70 points or 0.22% to 22,669.37, Straits Times added 2.42 points or 0.07% to 3,395.59, KOSPI Composite surged 7.92 points or 0.40% to 1,981.37 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 52.61 points or 0.64% to 8,262.39.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declined 67.96 points or 1.32% to 5,087.13, KLSE Composite slipped 4.01 points or 0.23% to 1,769.05 and Nikkei 225 was down by 402.21 points or 2.75% to 14,210.24.