Indian markets extend previous session’s gains; Sensex regains 20,000 mark

Extending their previous session’s gains, the Indian equity indices have made a positive start with Sensex recapturing its crucial 20,000 bastion buoyed by firm global cues. The sentiments remained up-beat after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's suggested stimulus policies may continue for longer than expected. Most of the Asian equity markets too were trading in the green at this point of time tracking overnight gains in Europe and Wall Street. Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei share average rose to an eight-week high after Bernanke said that the timing of winding down its stimulus by the US central bank was flexible.

Back home, sentiments remained sanguine after leading industry bodies FICCI and CII welcomed the government’s step to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) limits in insurance, retail, telecom, defence and a host of other sectors. Rally in power and fertilizer stocks too aided the sentiments as the government has decided not to divert supply of domestic gas from urea manufacturers to the fuel-starved power sector, while the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on gas allocation will meet again on Monday to find some solution for the power sector. Additionally, stocks from oil and gas counter too remained on the buyers’ radar after the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily has emphasized the need for greater investment in the oil and gas sector and has said that the government is committed to deal with the energy security issues. On the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by healthcare and software, while banking and auto remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 693 shares on the gaining side against 452 shares on the losing side while 53 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19999.51; about 50 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19948.73, and has touched a high and a low of 20059.03 and 19972.07 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 20030.82, up by 82.09 points or 0.41%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 57.73% stocks advancing against 37.72% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap up by 0.29% and Small cap indices up by 0.38%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.12%, Health Care up by 1.10%, IT up by 1.09%, FMCG up by 0.92% and Consumer Durables up by 0.87%, while Bankex down by 0.51% and Auto down by 0.37% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.74%, Jindal Steel up by 2.22%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.11%, Infosys up by 2.05% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.84%.  On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.69%,  ICICI Bank was down by 1.39%, Sterlite Industries was down by 0.98%, Coal India was down by 0.74% and NTPC was down by 0.54% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India’s gems and jewellery exports tumbled 41 per cent to $2.3 billion in June, 2013 as compared to $4 billion in the corresponding month previous year mainly due to shortage of yellow metal and limited inventory in domestic market. The major reason behind the shortage of raw-material for jewellery manufacturing was the government's move to curb gold imports. Though, the industry is expected to get a sufficient raw-material supply for jewellery manufacturing as the shortage is a short-term phenomenon.

India imported around 830 tonnes of gold in 2012-13. The government hiked the import duty on gold thrice in a year and raised it recently by 2 per cent to 8 per cent to curb demand. Besides, RBI too has put restrictions on banks on importing gold. Gold imports in June too are projected to have plunged to around 31 tonnes as against 162 tonnes in May and 141 tonnes in April. High imports strain the Current Account Deficit (CAD), which hit a record high of 4.8 per cent in the 2012-13 fiscal.

Meanwhile, jewellery exports declined 73 per cent as there were no outbound shipments of gold medallions and coins in June 2013. However, silver jewellery exports were up 52 per cent and outward shipments of cut and polished diamonds jumped about 22 per cent. On cumulative basis, the gems and jewellery exports declined 13.2 per cent year-on-year to $8.5 billion during April-June 2013.

India is the largest importer of gold which is mainly utilised to meet demand of the jewellery industry and the major markets for the country’s jewellery exports are the US, Europe, Middle-East, Hong Kong and Japan.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,984.70; about 11 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,973.30, and has touched a high and a low of 6,005.60 and 5,982.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,998.95, up by 25.65 points or 0.43%. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ONGC up by 2.83%, Jindal Steel up by 2.50%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.26%, Infosys up by 2.23% and Lupin up by 2.03%. On the flip side, M&M down by 1.77%, Kotak Bank down by 1.52%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.20%, ICICI Bank down by 1.18% and IDFC down by 1.10% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng rose 4.85 points or 0.02% to 21,376.72, Jakarta Composite increased 18.05 points or 0.39% to 4,697.05, KLSE Composite jumped 3.28 points or 0.18% to 1,791.94, Nikkei 225 surged 125.62 points or 0.86% to 14,740.66 and Straits Times was up by 14.16 points or 0.44% to 3,222.49.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 10.61 points or 0.52% to 2,034.32, Seoul Composite contracted 10.08 points or 0.53% to 1,877.41 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 65.97 points or 0.80% to 8,192.98.