Benchmarks trade near their day's high in late morning

Benchmarks were trading near their day's high led by bank shares on hopes that the central bank would maintain status quo on key rates at its policy meet next week. Sentiments got boosted after Indian rupee firmed up against the US dollar in early trades and was up at Rs 61.47 per dollar as compared with the previous close of Rs 61.62 per dollar.

On the global front, most of  Asian equity indices were trading higher at this point of time after Chinese central bank has injected emergency funding support to commercial banks in order to cater to rising demand for cash ahead of the Chinese New Year. Moreover, the Japanese Nikkei was trading higher for the first time in four sessions, up by around one and a half percent, as a weaker yen boosted stocks of exporters as well as automakers. Back home, traders were buying, Auto, Bankex and Metal while, selling was seen in IT, Teck and Oil & Gas on the BSE. Stocks related to textile sector like, Arvind, Alok Industries, Vardhman Textile, Trident etc. edged higher as the government is setting up a $60 billion target for the next financial year, up by over 30% from the current financial year.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1104:632. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 21,200 and 6,300 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21258.48 up by 53.43 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 21286.91 and 21204.82. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.60% and Small cap index gained 0.45%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.49%, Bankex up by 1.20%, Metal up by 1.04%, Capital Goods up by 0.97%, Realty up by 0.81% and Consumer Durables up by 0.72%, while IT down by 0.71%, Teck down by 0.58% and Oil & Gas down by 0.38% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.53%, SSLT up by 2.53%, Tata Steel up by 1.85%, ICICI Bank up by 1.85%, and SBI up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Coal India was down by 1.52%, TCS was down by 1.33%, Infosys was down by 0.74%, NTPC was down by 0.72% and  BHEL was down by 0.66% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, With a view to reassess the oil and gas potential of the country, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has announced setting up of a Multi-Organisational Team (MOT) to re-examine India’s hydrocarbon resources in all 26 sedimentary basins in the country. MOT will be headed by the Oil Secretary and comprises official from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) and exploration heads of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India. Highlighting that the two-decade old estimate of oil and gas reserves in India seems outdated, the Minister noted that the previous such exercise was undertaken two decades ago under which only 15 sedimentary basins were studied, putting India's oil and gas resource potential at a fraction of the 206 billion barrels of oil and oil-equivalent gas.

Presently, only 0.93 million sq km area in India is held under exploration and production in 19 basins as compared to total estimated sedimentary area of 3.14 million square kilometers, comprising 26 sedimentary basins. The oil ministry has emphasized the need for the fresh estimation in the remaining 11 sedimentary basins and asked the MOT to estimate the resources of all 3.14 million square kilometers of the 26 sedimentary basins and prepare a basin-wise portfolio. MOT will carry out the resource assessment at ONGC's Keshav Dev Majviy Institute of Petroleum Exploration (KDMIPE) in Dehradun. DGH to assess the hydrocarbon resources, while, KDMIPE will utilise the geo-scientific data available with them.  Furthermore, a National Steering Committee has also set up to periodically review the work done by KDMIPE.

Oil ministry has formulated a roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its oil and gas needs. India currently imports around 80 percent of its oil needs and the Ministry wants this to be cut to 50 percent by 2020 and by 25 percent in 2025 through intensive exploration and exploitation of untapped reserves. India will offer at least 46 oil and gas blocks soon under the 10th round of NELP auction under completely revamped terms. Tenth round of NELP auction will be the second highest offering of blocks since the advent of NELP in 1997, a common platform for public and private sector companies to bid for the blocks.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,319.20 up by 15.25 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 6,328.80 and 6,304.50. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stock declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.88%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.65%, SSLT up by 2.55%, PNB up by 1.96% and ICICI Bank up by 1.93%. On the flip side, Asian Paint down by 2.78%, Coal India down by 1.48%, TCS down by 1.42%, Kotak Bank down by 1.37% and Ultra Cement down by 1.04% were the top losers on the index.

Most of Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 12.71 points or 0.64% to 2,003.96, Hang Seng surged 129.84 points or 0.57% to 23,058.79, Jakarta Composite increased 15.21 points or 0.34% to 4,446.78, KLSE Composite strengthened 8.51 points or 0.47% to 1,816.10, Nikkei 225 soared 209.26 points or 1.34% to 15,850.94, Straits Times jumped 11.30 points or 0.36% to 3,140.09, Seoul Composite added 8.69 points or 0.44% to 1,962.47. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 13.45 points or 0.16% to 8,608.11.