Benchmarks make gap-up opening; Nifty re-claims 5,850 mark

Extending their last session’s euphoria, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading jubilantly in early deals on Friday with frontline gauges re-capturing their crucial 5,850 (Nifty) and 19,550 (Sensex) buoyed by firm global cues. Sentiments remained upbeat following the European Central Bank and the Bank of England overnight pledging to keep interest rates low for an extended period to support growth, while Asian equity indices too were trading mostly in the positive terrain with Japanese Nikkei surging over a percent with investors picking up stocks, as stronger dollar lifted the sentiment to a notable extent. Though, the US markets remained closed, unable to give any cues to the other global markets.

Back home, sentiments also remained up-beat as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 164.56 crore on July 4, 2013. Some support also came in from appreciation in Indian Rupee. The rupee today rose by 10 paise to 60.03 in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased dollar selling by banks and exporters amid strong domestic equities. Sentiments also remained up-beat as investors continued to pile-up positions in FMCG stocks. Dabur, Marico and GSK Consumer Healthcare edged higher on the back of early arrival and prospects of a good monsoon, which raised expectations of growth in uptake in rural areas that account for up to 50 per cent of their sales.

Back home, all the sectoral indices opened higher with the realty, fast moving consumer goods, capital goods, metal, oil and gas and power leading the pack with over a percent gains. Public sector undertakings, banking, healthcare and auto indices were the other notable index movers in the opening trades while, there were no losers 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 921 shares on the gaining side against 346 shares on the losing side while 55 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19568.79; about 157 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19410.84 and has touched a high and a low of 19640.27 and 19560.87 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19573.17, up by 162.33 points or 0.84%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 5 declines, while one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 69.67% stocks advancing against 26.17% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices down by 0.97% and 0.83% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.75%, FMCG up by 1.56%, Capital Goods up by 1.32%, Metal up by 1.28% and Oil & Gas up by 1.10%, while there were no losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 3.04%, Jindal Steel up by 2.01%, Tata Power up by 1.64%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.55% and L&T up by 1.48%.

On the flip side, Gail India was down by 0.93%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.50%, Wipro was down by 0.50%, Coal India was down by 0.38% and Infosys was down by 0.30% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government has approved eight proposals of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth of Rs 1,311.54 crore, on the basis of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) recommendations, taken after its meeting on June 14.

The approval includes Rs 1000 crore proposal to set up a joint Venture Company in telecom sector by Telenor Mobile Communication AS, a subsidiary of Norwegian telecom giant Telenor AS and the firm will be using this money to raise their shares in Telewings from current 49% to 74%. Also, Rs 280 crore proposal of Mahle Holding India; and Rs 8.39 crore proposal Kolkata-based Srei Infrastructure Finance to set up White label ATMs and UK-based Aveva Solutions for setting up an Limited Liability Partnership firm for software development, too have been approved.

FIPB deferred decisions on 10 applications and rejected 6 proposals. Among the rejected included the proposal of Multi Commodity Exchange to bring in foreign investment.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,889.95; about 53 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,836.95, and has touched a high and a low of 5,900.45 and 5,878.60 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,881.95, up by 45.00 points or 0.77%. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up by 3.91%, Hindustan Unilever by 2.85%, Ranbaxy Laboratories up by 2.85%, NMDC up by 2.08% and IDFC up by 2.01%.

On the flip side, Gail down by 1.11%, Coal India down by 0.57%, M&M down by 0.50%, Infosys down by 0.46% and HCL Tech down by 0.23% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 4.74 points or 0.24% to 2,010.84, Hang Seng surged 297.88 points or 1.46% to 20,766.55, Jakarta Composite jumped 15.18 points or 0.33% to 4,597.11, KLSE Composite increased 4.66 points or 0.26% to 1,776.00, Nikkei 225 soared 193.62 points or 1.38% to 14,212.55, Straits Times added 18.66 points or 0.59% to 3,165.78 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 119.52 points or 1.51% to 8,013.24.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite was down by 2.32 points or 0.13% to 1,836.82.