Rally in Metal, Realty stocks takes Indian benchmarks to high point of the day

Indian markets are witnessing unrelenting position build up across the board in Monday afternoon trades as the frontline indices are currently hovering around the psychological 4,800 (Nifty) and 16,000 (Sensex) levels. Sentiments remained upbeat on the back of encouraging global leads as most Asian peers traded with strong gains of around two percent while the European futures too signaled that the markets there could get a gap-up opening of over a percent. Local bourses remained firm despite the IMF denying reports that it was discussing a rescue package with Italy which had earlier spurred sanguine sentiments across the globe. Hefty short covering was evident in the badly beaten down Metal counter which rallied close to four percent followed by the high beta Realty index which jumped by over two and half a percent. The index heavyweight Reliance Industries too made it presence felt by surging over three percentage points while Coal India too zoomed over four and half a percent in the session so far. While there were no sectoral losers on the BSE, however some individual stocks like Bajaj Auto and L&T traded in the negative terrain. Moreover, the broader markets too showed some resilience and fervently rallied by over a percent gains however were outperformed by their larger peers by a fat margin. The bourses soared on good volumes of around Rs 0.50 lakh core on the second day of a new series of F&O contract. The market breadth on BSE was in favor of advances in the ratio of 1705:734 while 91 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16010.00 up by 314.57 points or 2.00% after trading as high as and 16043.80 as low as 15888.28. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a strong note; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.17% and Small cap soared 1.24%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Metal up 3.99%, Realty up 2.68%, Oil & Gas up 2.43%, Bankex up 2.39% and PSU up 2.28% were the major gainers while there were no losers in the space.

Hindalco up 5.68%, Tata Motors up 4.45%, ICICI Bank up 3.66%, Sterlite up 3.65% and Jindal Steel up 3.26% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Bajaj Auto down 1.81% and L&T down 0.19% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, India’s foodgrain productivity in 2010-11 crop year (July-June) has improved to 1,921 kg per hectare from 1,798 kg per hectare in the 2009-10 crop year, an increase of around 8%, according to Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Agriculture. The productivity of foodgrains was 1,715 kg per hectare in 2005-06.

The minister informed Rajya Sabha in his written reply that the average annual growth in the agriculture and allied sectors during the first four years of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) stood at 3.2% as against the targeted rate of 4%. He also opined that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for agriculture sector touched 6.6% in 2010-11, the highest growth rate achieved in last six years, thanks to the corrective actions taken by government.

However, the average growth in GDP of agriculture and allied sectors in four years of the 11th Five-Year Plan lagged behind targets due to severe drought in many parts of the country during 2009-10 and drought/deficient rainfall in some states namely Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and East Uttar Pradesh in 2010-11.

Harish Rawat also informed the house that over the years, investments in farm sector have been increasing and reached Rs 1,33,377 crore in 2009-10 from Rs 76,096 crore in 2004-05. This includes public sector investment from 16,187 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 23,635 crore in 2009-10 and private sector investment from Rs 59,909 crore to Rs 1,09,742 crore in the same period at 2004-05 prices.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4802.95, higher by 92.90 points or 1.97% after trading as high as 4813.30 and as low as 4766.40. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Hindalco up 6.04%, IDFC up 5.31%, Seas Goa up 4.49%, Tata Motors up 4.36% and Sterlite up 3.90%.

Bajaj Auto down 1.52%, Siemens down 0.67%, L&T down 0.19% and GAIL down 0.08% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets traded on an encouraging note, Shanghai Composite gained 0.16%, Hang Seng spurted 2.06%, Jakarta Composite declined 0.38%, Nikkei 225 soared 1.56%, Straits Times surged 1.52%, Seoul Composite jumped 2.19% and Taiwan Weighted ascended 1.68%.

Stock markets in Malaysia remained shut in observance of Awal Muharram.