Benchmarks extend their gains on firm global cues

Benchmarks have extended their  gains in late morning trade on the back of a firming trend on other Asian bourses after the US Dow Jones closed above the 16,000-level for the first time on the back of a slew of upbeat economic data, influenced the trading sentiments here. Traders were also taking support from Finance minister P Chidambaram’s statement that the annual headline inflation is expected to moderate to near 5 percent, as there was reasonable price stability in some major commodities. Finance Minister has also made a strong pitch to overseas Indians and has said that the country is a safe destination with a potential of 8% growth and ample investment opportunities.

On the global front, most of Asian markets were trading in green buoyed by the overnight positive close on Wall Street and the Japanese index was taking the lead, as the yen weakened against the dollar, boosting the earnings outlook for Japanese exporters. Investors are also betting on hopes that the Japanese central bank will offer more easing measures in the foreseeable future. The Bank of Japan will release its monthly economic report today after the central bank yesterday maintained its unprecedented monetary policy. Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas and Capital Goods while selling were seen in Auto, Metal and Healthcare on the BSE. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1118:593. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,200 and 6,000 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading a 20229.05, up by 49.94 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 20372.33 and 20246.59. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35% and Small cap index gained 0.65%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 0.96%, Oil & Gas up by 0.72%, Capital Goods up by 0.60%, PSU up by 0.55%, and Bankex up by 0.50% while Auto down by 0.50%, Metal down by 0.23%, and  Healthcare down by 0.13%, were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.27%, ONGC up by 1.72%, HDFC up by 1.35%, Tata Steel up by 1.10%, and Gail India up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 1.62%, Tata Motors was down by 1.40%, SSLT was down by 1.14%, Hindalco Inds was down by 0.84%, and  Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.68% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the inflation based on consumer price index (CPI) for agricultural labourers (AL) eased to 12.65 percent in the month of October on y-o-y basis as against 12.78 percent recorded in the previous month. While, the retail inflation for rural labourers (CPI-RL) increased to 12.48 percent in reported month from 12.44 percent recorded in September. Further, inflation based on food index of CPI-AL and CPI-RL are stood at 13.62 percent and 13.11 percent respectively during October, 2013.

Meanwhile the increase or fall in index varied from state to state. Referring to agriculture inflation, the index recorded an increase which varied between 2 to 17 points in 18 states and a decrease of 1 and 4 points in two states. Haryana with 846 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with the index level of 616 points stood at the bottom. Further, Agricultural labourers index for Tripura registered the maximum increase of 17 points, while, Maharashtra registered a decline of 4 points.

In case of rural labourers, it recorded an increase between 2 points and 16 points in 18 states, a decrease of two points in one state and remained stationary in one state. Haryana with 840 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with the index level of 651 points stood at the bottom. Further, rural labourers index for Gujarat and Orissa states registered the maximum increase of 16 points each mainly owing to the rise in the prices of rice, wheat atta, fish, onion, vegetables and fruits and bus fare. On the other hand, Maharashtra registered a decline of 2 points mainly due to decrease in the prices of wheat, jowar, bajra, groundnut oil and fish. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,011.80 up by 12.75 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 6,040.90 and 6,003.95. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cairn up by 2.74%, ONGC up by 1.68%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.49%, IndusInd Bank up by 1.02%, and Tata Steel up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.77%, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 1.62%, SSLT down by 1.14%, Hindalco down by 1.13%, and BPCL down by 0.63%, were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng surged by 82.80  points or 0.35% to 23,663.09, Nikkei 225 surged by 2.96 points or 0.01% to 15,554.23, KLSE Composite was up by 0.20 points or 0.01% to1,794.85 , Seoul Composite gained 8.60 points or 0.42% to 2,001.96 and Taiwan Weighted gained 23.47 points or 0.28% to 8,122.19.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 3.11 points or 0.14% to 2,202.65, Jakarta Composite was down by 2.06 points or 0.05% to 4,324.14, and Straits Times was down by 5.61 points or 0.18% to 3,167.42.