Benchmarks trade jubilantly in early deals; Sensex regains 21,000 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading jubilantly in early deals on Monday, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 21,000 (Sensex) and 6,200 (Nifty) bastions. Sentiments remained buoyed as lower growth in US payrolls eased concerns the Federal Reserve may not go for aggressive stimulus cuts. The Asian equity markets were trading mostly higher at this point of time, while the US markets made a mixed closing on getting disappointing jobs data, though wholesale inventories rose, but traders remained concerned about Fed’s further course of action.

Back home, investors shrugged off weak industrial production data as investment by foreign institutional investors, firm global cues and appreciation in rupee against the US dollar aided market sentiments. Shares of oil and gas companies were trading higher by up to 3 percent in early morning deals after the government has officially notified the new gas pricing policy that would be applicable to all the domestically produced gas from April 2014, which will be effective for five years. As per the new pricing mechanism, the new gas price is likely to be $8.4/mmbtu for FY2015. Currently, the gas prices are in the range of $4.2-5.7/mmbtu for domestically produced gas.

On the sectoral front, oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by software and technology, while fast-moving consumer goods and healthcare remained the top 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 1,146 shares on the gaining side against 495 shares on the losing side while 112 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 20850.54; about 92 points lower compared to its previous closing of 20758.49, and touched a high and a low of 21066.08 and 20850.54 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 21036.22, up by 277.73 points or 1.34%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 3 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 64.51% stocks advancing against 28.91% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.53% and Small cap gained 0.94%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 2.16%, IT up by 2.11%, Teck up by 1.81%, PSU up by 1.17% and Bankex up by 1.14%, while FMCG down by 0.14% and Healthcare down by 0.12% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.91%,  Infosys up by 2.82%, Tata Motors up by 2.72%, ICICI Bank up by 2.39% and RIL up by 2.36%. On the flip side, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.89%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.60% and Bajaj Auto was down by 0.13% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Buoyed over the firm growth witnessed in the Indian exports, Commerce Ministry has expressed confidence of meeting the export target of $325 billion adding that all efforts should be made to accelerate exports so that target is easily achieved.

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma has recently reviewed the foreign trade policy and asked officials to engage with all stakeholders to boost exports in the remaining 3-odd months of the current fiscal, 2013-14. Further, the minister has expressed satisfaction over diversification of exports markets and underscored that South America and Africa would contribute more to the growth of India's exports.

In last fiscal, Indian exports fell by 1.82% to $300.4 billion due to a slowdown in global demand. Meanwhile, in current fiscal, Indian exports has been increasing at a significant pace on the back reviving demand in the US and European markets, rupee depreciation and favorable measures taken by the government. During April-November, 2013, the value of exports increased by 6.27% to $203.98 billion as against $191.96 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

However, the country’s most export orientated sectors are facing some issues. Pharmaceuticals export posted a growth of 3% in the April-November 2013 period to $9.77 billion against 11% growth in 2011-12 owing to marked slowdown in the segment, especially due to EU and the US regulatory issues. In gems & jewellery sector, although export of diamonds and coloured stones has increased, gold exports declined due to curbs imposed on imports of the yellow metal.   

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,189.55; about 18 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,171.45, and has touched a high and a low of 6,259.00 and 6,189.55 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,251.30, up by 79.85 points or 1.29%. There were 44 stocks advancing against 5 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.22%, ONGC up by 2.82%, Infosys up by 2.75%, ICICI Bank up by 2.38% and Reliance Industries up by 2.31%. On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 3.61%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 0.67%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.51%, Ambuja Cements down by 0.36% and ACC down by 0.17% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Jakarta Composite surged 105.84 points or 2.49% to 4,360.81, KLSE Composite rose 8.45 points or 0.46% to 1,835.06, Seoul Composite added 12.03 points or 0.62% to 1,950.57 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 45.34 points or 0.53% to 8,574.69.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite slipped 1.16 points or 0.06% to 2,012.14, Hang Seng dipped 14.22 points or 0.06% to 22,832.03 and Straits Times was down by 5.81 points or 0.18% to 3,138.06.

The Japanese market remained closed on account of ‘Coming of Age Day’ holiday.