Sensex regains 21000 level after three years; Nifty at 2013 high

After a consolidation in previous three sessions, Benchmarks have rallied over one percent so far this month on expectations that the US Federal Reserve would delay its tapering due to the weak US jobs data for September. Investor’s sentiments boosted as the rupee appreciating against the US dollar. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.45 compared with previous close of Rs 61.59 per dollar. Sentiments also some support on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 644.80 crore on October 23, 2013.

On the global front, Moreover, most of the Asian equity benchmarks were trading in the red at this point of time after Chinese money market rates surged, while worries over China’s economic outlook too weighed down sentiments. However, some recovery was seen in the regional counterparts after a preliminary survey showed activity in China's vast manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in seven months in October.

Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables, Realty, Bankex and Metal on the BSE.  Telecom stocks such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication all edged higher after the Telecom Regulatory Authority stuck to its earlier stance on pricing of spectrum, which calls for up to 60 percent cut in the reserve price of spectrum in the upcoming third round of auction. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1098:588. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,900 and 6,200 levels respectively. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20999.58, up by 231.70 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 21039.42 and 20750.98. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.83% and Small cap index gained 0.58%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.03%, Bankex up by 1.45%, Metal up by 1.36%, Auto up by 1.36% and Consumer Durables up by 1.35%, while there were no losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.44%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.08%, SSLT up by 1.94%, ONGC up by 1.56%, and HDFC Bank up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Wipro was down by 0.75%, Coal India was down by 0.35% TCS was down by 0.13% and Cipla was down by 0.01% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a major development, Petroleum Ministry has allowed private upstream companies like Reliance Industries and Cairn India to start producing oil and gas from discoveries even before securing approval for field investment plans. To enable monetization of the finds contained with an already producing area, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily approved 5-page guidelines for production and development of oil and gas discoveries.

As per the guidelines approved, each company will be allowed the option to submit an integrated development plan (IDP) encompassing multiple new discoveries. Presently, every discovery is treated as a separate factory and operators are required to first get approval for commercial viability and then seek approval for an investment plan, called a field development plan (FDP).

However, now the Ministry has permitted submission of declaration of commerciality (DOC) and FDP/IDP together by subsuming DOC within the FDP/IDP. Further while, the cases with single discovery will be termed as FDP and cases of multiple discoveries will be termed as IDP.

Thus, with these new guidelines, the contractor, for early monetisation of new discoveries in a mining lease (or producing) areas, may be allowed by the Management Committee (MC) to produce hydrocarbons from the notified new discoveries, pending approval of FDP/IDP. However, this will be subjected to condition that the contract has taken approval of the MC for the annual work programme, budget and program quantity for such new discoveries. Additionally, recovery of all costs associated with new recoveries pending approval of FDP/IDP, despite their inclusion in the annual work program and budget, will not be permitted.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,239.85 up by 61.50 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 6,252.45 and 6,162.60. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 2.96%, Kotak Bank up by 2.55%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.53%, Tata Motors up by 2.50% and NMDC up by 2.12%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 0.92%, Wipro down by 0.91%, Power Grid down by 0.84%, Ambuja Cements down by 0.79% and Coal India down by 0.64% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite dipped 5.20 points or 0.24% to 2,177.90, Hang Seng declined 204.27 points or 0.89% to 22,795.68, Nikkei 225 shed 94.22 points or 0.65% to 14,331.83, Straits Times slipped 2.70 points or 0.08% to 3,202.10, Seoul Composite decreased 0.44 points or 0.01% to 2,035.60.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite rose 21.33 points or 0.47% to 4,567.83, KLSE Composite was up by 5.71 points or 0.31% to 1,819.82 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 5.94 points or 0.07% to 8,394.71.