Benchmarks witness mindboggling start tracking firm global cues

The Indian equity markets have prolonged their previous session’s rally with an amazing start of over 3% on the back of a firming trend in global markets after coordinated action by central banks to pump liquidity into the financial system. Overnight, the US stocks surged after major central banks agreed to make cheaper dollar loans for struggling European banks to prevent the Euro-zone debt woes from turning into a full-blown credit crisis while, all the Asian markets were ebulliently rallying with massive gains at this point of time. Moreover, China’s cut of reserve ratio by 50 bps and better than expected economic data from US too helped the rally. Back home, sustained buying in mostly all the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE’s -- Sensex -- and NSE’s -- Nifty -- to recapture their crucial 16,600 and 5,000 mark respectively for a while in the initial trade but, came off from day’s high. Meanwhile, the Indian rupee appreciated by 45 paise to 51.74 a dollar. The broader indices too were performing well in the trade. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,112 shares on the gaining side against 205 shares on the losing side while 28 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,555.93; about 432 points higher compared to its previous closing of 16,123.46, and has touched a high 16,718.11 while low remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 16,599.90, up by 476.44 points or 2.95%. There were 29 stocks advancing against just 1 decline on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 82.68% stocks advancing against 15.24% declines. The broader indices too were performing well in the early trade; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 1.87% and 1.40% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 4.63%, Bankex up by 4.46%, Auto up by 3.22%, Realty up by 2.95% and CG was up by 2.71%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 7.65%, Hindalco up by 7.38%, ICICI Bank up by 5.89%, Tata Motors up by 5.89% and Tata Steel was up by 5.37%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 0.08% was the lone loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India's economy is expected to grow by 7.3% in the fiscal year ending March 2012, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. He further said, ‘global financial problems had adversely affected domestic growth. Taking into account the trend of the last two quarters, I expect the GDP growth to be 7.3 percent (in 2011/12).’

The economy grew at the slowest rate for more than two years in the second quarter, confirming the country's shift to lower growth rates of around 7%. The growth rate skidded to 6.9% for the July-September quarter, on the back of string of rate hikes and a weakening global economy. The last time India's economy expanded at below 7% was in the financial quarter to June 2009 as global economies were emerging from the global financial crisis.

Persistently high inflation weakened demand had impelled the Reserve bank to hike rates 13 times over the last 18 months, while the latest global slowdown has hit demand for the nation's exports. However, the GDP figure was in line with expectations, putting more pressure on the central bank to reverse its line of rate hikes.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 4,970.85; about 58 points higher compared to its previous closing of 4,832.05 and has touched a high and a low of 5,011.90 and 4,969.70 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 4,975.05, higher by 143.00 points or 2.96%. There were 49 stocks advancing against 1 decline on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sterlite Industries up by 7.70%, Hindalco up by 7.20%, ICICI Bank up by 6.70%, Ranbaxy up by 6.41% and Tata Motors was up by 5.87%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.10% was the lone loser on the index.

Asian markets were ebulliently rallying with massive gains in the range of two to six percent thanks to the wonderful tidings on the global front; Shanghai Composite was up 78.12 points or 3.35% to 2,411.53, Hang Seng was up 1,052.01 points or 5.85% to 19,041.36, Jakarta Composite was up 91.22 points or 2.46% to 3,806.30, KLSE Composite was up 20.90 points or 1.42% to 1,493.00, Nikkei 225 was up 212.02 points or 2.51% to 8,646.63, Straits Times was up 68.18 points or 2.52% to 2,770.64, Seoul Composite was up 72.77 points or 3.94% to 1,920.28 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 278.88 points or 4.04% to 7,183.00.