Benchmarks climb to intra-day high level on positive cues

Benchmark equity indices steadily gaining ground are now trading near day’s high point on account of sustained buying by funds and retailers ahead of industrial output data. Besides, further recovery in the rupee against the dollar on the back of more measures announced by RBI is also supporting the uptrend of local equity markets. In a bid to stem an unprecedented slide in the currency, central bank pledged to curb the supply of cash.  The Reserve Bank of India will auction 22,000 crore of cash-management bills every Monday. Back on street, while Nifty reclaimed its crucial 5,600 mark, Sensex too is comfortably cruising past 18950 level.

A positive global set-up is also contributing to the upside of the bourses from early deals. On the global front, borrowing positive cues from Asian counterparts, European markets have got off to a positive start. Asian shares rose higher after Chinese stocks surged to a 3-1/2 week high as investors’ took heart from last week's encouraging data from the world's second-biggest economy, helping offset a slightly disappointing second quarter Japanese GDP report. Data released after the market close on Friday were equally positive, showing Chinese new bank loans and money supply for July came in higher than expected despite a fall in a broad measure of liquidity.

Closer home, stocks from Banking and Oil & Gas counters were the weak links of trade, while those from Metal, Health Care and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters were the star performers. Banking shares which were trading downbeat since morning deals, further got a hit after State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, posted a second consecutive drop in quarterly net profit, missing street estimates, on worsening asset quality, higher operating expenses and muted growth in interest income. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1240:718; while 100 shares remained unchanged.The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18962.93, up by 173.59 points or 0.92% after trading in a range of 18989.63 and 18796.01. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading higher by  1.26% and 1.40% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 4.87%, Healthcare up by 1.87%, FMCG up by 1.67%, PSU up by 1.28% and Auto up by 0.98%. While, Bankex down by 0.59%, Oil & Gas down by 0.04% were loser indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 7.99%, Sun Pharma up by 6.78%, Jindal Steel up by 6.10%, Sterlite Inds up by 4.98% and Hindalco Industries up by 3.07%. On the flip side, SBI down by 2.76%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.41%, Tata Power down by 1.93%, TCS down by 1.68% and RIL down by 1.16% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to boost the food processing sector, the government has approved setting up of 12 mega food parks during the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17) with an allocation of Rs 1,714 crore, which would lead to creation of adequate infrastructure in the country with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet.

The estimated investment in each project is around Rs 100 crore in common facilities and leverages an additional investment about of Rs 250 crore. In each Project, around 30-40 food processing industries are expected to be setup. To set up these food parks, the central government will provide 50 percent grant of the eligible project cost in general areas and of the 75 percent of eligible project cost in difficult and hilly areas subject to maximum of Rs 50 crore per project.

Further, the government expects that the annual turnover of each project to be around Rs 500 crore and food parks would generate about 40,000 direct and indirect jobs and likely to benefit 6000 farmers/producers directly and 25,000-30,000 farmers indirectly. The government has also approved an allocation of Rs 786 crore for setting up of cold chain projects in the 12th plan period with a view that cold chain storages will reduce around 6-8 percent wastage of perishable products.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,607.75, up by 42.10 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 5,615.95 and 5,557.10. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 8.16%, Sun Pharma up by 7.07%, Jindal Steel up by 6.51%, NMDC up by 6.04% and Sesa Goa up by 4.26%. On the flip side, SBI down by 2.88%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 2.13%, PNB down by 2.13%, Axis bank down by 2.07% and Tata Power down by 1.87% were the major losers on the index.

The most of Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng up by 2.08%, Seoul Composite up by 0.22%, Straits Times up by 0.16%, Shanghai Composite up by 2.25%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.60% and KLSE Composite up by 0.30%. While, Jakarta Composite down by 0.46% and Nikkei 225 was down by 0.70%.

European markets too got off  to a positive start; with CAC 40 adding 0.12%, DAX rising 0.24% and FTSE 100 advancing 0.18%.