Sensex hits all time high in early deals; Nifty surpasses 6,300 level

Fireworks continue at Dalal Street as Indian equity benchmarks spark off the festive rally to hit all time high after a period of 5 years and 10 months in early trades. Sentiments remained up-beat after core sector industries recorded 8 percent growth in September, highest in the past 11 months. The growth in the eight infrastructure industries was mainly due to expansion in crude oil, steel and electricity production. Sentiments also got some boost after Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram has said that the government will meet the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 percent of GDP for the current financial year.

On the global front, the US markets extended their fall on the last day of the month, mainly induced by late hour selling, while most of the Asian equity benchmarks were trading in the red at this point of time with investors trading cautiously, despite some fairly encouraging economic data out of China. However, Chinese Shanghai remained in the green after the nation’s manufacturing sector grew at the fastest pace in 18 months in October. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 51.4 last month, up from September’s 51.1.

Back home, jubilation continued on report that foreign direct investment (FDI) in India increased by about 35 percent to $13.6 billion during the first half of 2013 with merger and acquisitions accounting for the bulk of inflows. On the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by banking and auto, while consumer durables, power and fast moving consumer goods remained the few 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 930 shares on the gaining side against 358 shares on the losing side while 51 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 21158.81; about 5 points lower compared to its previous closing of 21164.52, and has touched a high and a low of 21293.88 and 21146.57 respectively. The index is currently trading at 21218.85, up by 54.33 points or 0.26%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 69.45% stocks advancing against 26.74% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap up by 0.66% and Small cap indices up by 0.77%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.82%, Bankex up by 0.96%, Auto up by 0.83%, Metal up by 0.66% and PSU up by 0.60%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.19%, Power down by 0.26% and FMCG down by 0.21% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.27%, SBI up by 2.14%, Coal India up by 1.64%, Tata Motors up by 1.55% and BHEL up by 1.53%. On the flip side, NTPC was down by 1.21%,  Sun Pharma was down by 0.87%, Gail India was down by 0.81%, ONGC was down by 0.77% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.69% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the planning commission has finalized coal banking mechanism under which two private companies could exchange surplus coal available with them. The proposed mechanism does not involve public sector miner Coal India and stated that if a company starts mining coal from its captive mine before its end-use plant is ready, it can offer that coal to another company whose end-use plant is ready but whose mine is not explored. Meanwhile, to exchange surplus coal available with them, the agreement would have to be agreed commercially by both the companies after seeking approval from the Coal Ministry. Coal banking mechanism will be implemented only after Cabinet approval.

Earlier, public sector miner Coal India Ltd had expressed concerns for implementation of coal banking mechanism under which it will have to receive coal from private miners and commits itself for returning it to them in the future. Coal India reluctance over the mechanism had forced the panel to look at alternative ways to use surplus coal available with the companies. Meanwhile, most of private power producers have been maintaining that Coal India should be the custodian of surplus coal. It is estimated that the country will produce nearly 25 million tonnes of extra coal by 2015-16.

In order to meet India’s growing coal demand, the government will soon invite bids from private players to start coal mining in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode in the country, which would also end the monopoly of public sector unit Coal India. Furthermore, the government has approved the new methodology for auctioning coal blocks for providing upfront and production-linked payments and benchmarking of coal sale prices to ensure greater transparency in auctioning the fully explored coal blocks. The government is likely to auction 10 coal blocks in the month of March next year.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,289.75; about 9 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 6,299.15, and has touched a high and a low of 6,332.60 and 6,286.95 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,308.00, up by 8.85 points or 0.14%. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were PNB up by 4.61%, Bank of Baroda up by 3.21%, IDFC up by 2.74%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.31% and SBI up by 2.13%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.61%, Sun Pharma down by 1.14%, ONGC down by 1.00%, Gail down by 0.96% and M&M down by 0.87% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng dipped 14.36 points or 0.06% to 23,192.01, Jakarta Composite declined 54.87 points or 1.22% to 4,455.76, Nikkei 225 shed 178.00 points or 1.24% to 14,149.94, Straits Times dropped 13.47 points or 0.42% to 3,197.20 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 52.14 points or 0.62% to 8,397.92.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite rose 2.53 points or 0.12% to 2,144.14, KLSE Composite increased 2.51 points or 0.14% to 1,809.36 and Seoul Composite was up by 5.28 points or 0.26% to 2,035.37.