Markets soar to day’s highest level; Sensex at 5 years high

Benchmark equity indices, gaining more strength, are trading near day’s highest point on account of frenzied buying activity by traders on F&O expiry session. Thus, trading near 5 years high, Sensex is comfortably trading past the crucial 21,000 level, while Nifty is gyrating above the psychological 6,250 level. Meanwhile, broader indices, outperforming larger peers, are trading with gains of above half a percent. Government Panel’s recommendation of Rs 5 hike in diesel prices is a factor mainly fuelling a rally at Indian equity markets, which shrugging negative global set-up, are trading upbeat since early deals.

On the global front, Asian markets were mostly lower Thursday after the Fed left its bond-buying program steady, while China was weighed down by declines in banking stocks. The Fed met expectations by leaving its stimulus program unchanged at its policy meeting, though it did surprise with its upbeat assessment of the economy. Closer home, stocks from Consumer Durable, Metal and Capital Goods counters are the prominent gainers of the barometer gauges, while those from Healthcare, Realty and Banking counters are the weak spells of trade. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which have thumped declines in the ratio of 1065:1050: while 174 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21067.32, up by 33.35 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 21099.59 and 20,991.98. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.69%, and Small cap index gained 0.49%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.44%, Metal up by 0.86%, Capital Goods up by 0.72%, Teck up by 0.50% and Information Technology up by 0.40%. While,  Healthcare down by 0.27%, Realty down by 0.23%,  Bankex down by 0.21%, FMCG down by 0.12%, and Power down by 0.04% were losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.86%, SSLT up by 1.82%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.78%, Tata Motors up by 1.24% and  RIL up by 1.10%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.26%, M&M down by 1.08%, Cipla down by 0.97%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 0.92% and Gail India down by 0.77% and were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government has hiked the import tariff value of gold to $442 per 10 gram from $418 in line with global prices of the precious metal amid rising gold supply in domestic market during the festival season. Tariff value or the base price is set to determine the customs duty on the precious metal and to prevent under invoicing. However, the import tariff value of silver has been kept unchanged at $699 per kg. 

At present, gold is being sold at a high premium in domestic market owing to the supply crunch caused by government's measures to restrict the import of precious metal in an effort to check country’s widening current account deficit (CAD). Rising gold import has become a cause of concern for the government as it remains second major factor after crude oil for high CAD, which widened to a record high of 4.9 percent of GDP in the April-June quarter, 2013. The government has set target to contain country’s CAD at 3.7 percent of GDP for the current fiscal.

Meanwhile, the government’s measures to contain the gold imports have started yielding as imports of gold and silver plunged more than 80% to $0.8 billion in September from $4.6 billion a year earlier. Recently, the RBI has introduced 80/20 rule under which 20% of all gold imports by jewellers have to be re-exported and the government has hiked gold imports rates to 15%. India’s gold import is likely to come down to between 800-850 tonnes in current fiscal from 950 tonnes in FY13 on the back of sharp hike in import duty by the government and restrictions put by the RBI.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,259.35, up by 7.65 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 6,258.55 and 6,235.90. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 decline on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 2.39%, IDFC up by 2.24%, SSLT up by 1.89%, Wipro up by 1.76% and HCL Technologies up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 2.90%, ACC down by 1.87%, ONGC down by 1.30%, Axis Bank down by 1.15% and Cipla down by 1.12% was the major loser on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Taiwan Weighted down by 0.18%, Seoul Composite down by 1.43%, Straits Times down by 0.42%, Nikkei 225 down by 1.20%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.87%, Hang Seng down by 0.28%, Jakarta Composite down by 1.61% and KLSE Composite down by 0.56%.