Benchmarks trade higher on firm global cues

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity indices have made a positive start on the penultimate day of F&O series expiry. The US markets edged higher overnight, as Wall Street cheered upbeat economic data showing increase in durable-goods orders, new-home sales and consumer confidence which overshadowed concerns about China’s credit problems. Asian markets too were trading mostly higher at this point of time after the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said late on Tuesday that it had provided cash to some institutions facing temporary shortages and would continue to do so if required.

Back home, some support came in on report that government will take a speedy decision on hiking FDI limits, as Finance minister P Chidambaram indicated that a final decision may be taken by the second or third week of July and has asserted that there was no room for pessimism as the fundamentals of the Indian economy are strong. Some support also came in after index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose about a percent on reports that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) will consider a proposal this week for a steep hike in natural gas prices. On the sectoral front, power stocks witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and oil and gas, while auto remained the lone 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 733 shares on the gaining side against 445 shares on the losing side while 63 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18662.37; about 33 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18629.15 and has touched a high and a low of 18690.50 and 18623.10 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18679.63, up by 50.48 points or 0.27%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 59.44% stocks advancing against 35.66% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices down by 0.39% and 0.44% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Power up by 1.30%, Realty up by 1.05%, Oil & Gas up by 0.94%, Capital Goods up by 0.80% and PSU up by 0.78%, while Auto down by 0.47% was the sole loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.70%, Gail India up by 1.60%, BHEL up by 1.41%, Tata Power up by 1.37% and  Sterlite Industries up by 1.23%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 3.57%, Tata Motors was down by 1.86%, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.47%, Jindal Steel was down by 0.72% and HDFC was down by 0.41% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government has reduced the import tariff value of gold from $459 to $421 per 10 grams and that of imported silver from $737 to $709 per kg, considering the falling trend in global prices. Global prices in Singapore have been inconsistent in the last few days mainly leading to the import tariff value reduction of gold. Tariff value is the base price which is used in the customs duty determination to prevent under-invoicing.

As per the Bombay Bullion Association, India's gold import in the second quarter of the current fiscal year is anticipated to more than halve to 150 tonnes as against around 350 tonnes in the April-June period of the 2013-14 fiscal.

Besides precious metals, the government has increased the import tariff value of RBD palmolein from $854 to $869 per ton, however the tariff value of other varieties of edible oil have been kept unchanged.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,627.95; about 18 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,609.10, and has touched a high and a low of 5,635.25 and 5,612.65 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,631.80, up by 22.70 points or 0.40%. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.44%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 2.39%, Gail up by 2.08%, PNB up by 1.88% and NTPC up by 1.88%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.59%, Tata Motors down by 1.88%, IndusInd Bank down by 1.62%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.56% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.42% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng surged 202.08 points or 1.02% to 20,057.80, Jakarta Composite soared 103.68 points or 2.35% to 4,522.55, KLSE Composite rose 4.41 points or 0.26% to 1,733.05, Straits Times increased 16.61 points or 0.54% to 3,106.54 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 114.50 points or 1.49% to 7,777.73.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined by 25.92 points or 1.32% to 1,933.59, Nikkei 225 dipped 63.67 points or 0.49% to 12,905.67 and KOSPI Composite was down by 4.62 points or 0.26% to 1,776.01.