Benchmarks cheer BJP's lead in exit polls

Benchmarks continued to trade firm in late morning after exit polls predicted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to emerge as the biggest winner in four key state elections. Sentiments got boosted as the rupee traded higher against the dollar, its strongest level since Nov. 5. It was trading at 61.76/77 compared to its 62.05/06 close on Wednesday. Rally in oil and gas counter too supported the sentiments, as the Paris-based International Energy Agency has said that India would be the largest single source of growth in global oil demand after 2020.

On the global front, Asian markets too were trading in red terrain with investors indulging in some selling amid uncertainty about the outlook for the US and Federal Reserve’s stimulus program. Back home, traders were buying, Bankex, Capital Goods and Realty, while selling were seen in Healthcare on the BSE. Telecom stocks such as  Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication edged higher after the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that GSM mobile operators added 16.6 lakh new subscribers in rural areas in October to take the overall base in such areas to 27.43 crore

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1171:534. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 21,000 and 6,250 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21098.62 up by 389.91 points or 1.88% after trading in a range of 21165.60 and 20992.25. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.03% and Small cap index gained 0.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 4.46%, Capital Goods up by 3.19%, Realty up by 2.34%, PSU up by 1.75% and Power up by 1.62%, while Healthcare down by 0.02% was only the loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 5.99%, HDFC Bank up by 4.35%, L&T up by 3.92%,  Maruti Suzuki up by 2.97% and  HDFC up by 2.57%. On the flip side, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.42%, Sun Pharma was down by 0.15% and Wipro was down by 0.12%  were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the country’s GSM mobile operators have added 16.6 lakh new subscribers in rural areas in October, taking their overall user base in such areas to 27.43 crore, which represents 0.61% growth as compared to previous month.

According to data released by the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), among all the telecom operators, Vodafone added the maximum of 7.7 lakh new users, taking its rural subscriber base to 8.39 crore at the end of October, following it was Bharti Airtel, which added 6 lakh new users during the month and its base stood at 8.74 crore. Meanwhile, Idea Cellular and Aircel added 3.7 lakh and 60,000 new users to take their respective base to 6.95 crore and 2.33 crore. However, Uninor lost 1.4 lakh rural subscribers during the month, which led to a contraction in its base to 1.01 crore at the end of October.

Further, COAI data revealed that total rural subscribers as on September 2013 stood at 35.66 crore of which 35.03 crore are wireless and 63.1 lakh are wireline users. Meanwhile, total rural teledensity stood at 41.70 per cent as on September 2013.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,280.85 up by 119.90 points or 1.95% after trading in a range of 6,300.55 and 6,262.40. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stock declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 6.26%, ICICI Bank up by 6.05%, HDFC Bank up by 4.77%, Axis Bank up by 4.18% and L&T up by 4.18%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 0.48%, Cairn down by 0.19%, Wipro down by 0.09% and Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 0.09% were the only losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite slipped 2.65 points or 0.12% to 2,249.11, Hang Seng declined 75.23 points or 0.32% to 23,653.47, Jakarta Composite tumbled 44.97 points or 1.06% to 4,196.33, Nikkei 225 dipped 143.00 points or 0.93% to 15,263.86, Straits Times dropped 29.86 points or 0.94% to 3,130.84 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 41.37 points or 0.49% to 8,376.63. On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 3.64 points or 0.20% to 1,825.54 and Seoul Composite up by 0.84 points or 0.04% to 1,987.56.