Benchmarks near day’s high; Nifty surges above 1%

Indian equity markets, which shifted up following a bright start remains well entrenched in positive territory and currently trading near high point of the day on sustained buying in several blue chip stocks. However, some key share indices are trading near day highs led by buying interest among index heavyweight Reliance Industries and financials. On sectoral front metal shares trading higher after recent fall, with private sector aluminium major Hindalco Industries gaining for third straight session on strong Q4 sequential growth. Capital goods stocks were in limelight after recent slide. Auto stocks were on buyer’s radar after recent losses triggered by most auto companies reporting tepid sales growth for April 2012. In currency markets rupee edged higher following the Reserve Bank of India fixing intra-day open position limits at five times the net overnight open position limit for rupee trading. On global front Asian markets have given up early gains due to some weak economic data from the region and on lingering concerns about the eurozone economy. While European shares witnessed recoveries on Thursday after Spain moved to clean up its banks and Europe's bailout fund approved a key payment to Greece, but disappointing Chinese trade data kept markets on edge. Back home, the market breadth favours positive trend; there were 1472 shares on the gaining side against 948 shares on the losing side while 125 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,656.18, up by 176.60 points or 1.07%.  The index has touched a high and low of 16,671.81 and 16,515.62 respectively. There were 25 stocks advancing against just four declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The broader indices were also trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.85% and 0.61% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by1.67%, Capital Goods (CG) up by 1.56%, Realty up by 1.17%, Auto up by 1.17% and Metal up by 1.15%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were DLF up by 2.91%, BHEL up by 2.66%, Jindal Steel up by 2.25%, M&M up by 2.19% and L&T up by 2.17%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.46%, Infosys down by 0.75%, Coal India down by 0.70% and Gail India down by 0.16% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India has received the highest amount of monthly foreign direct investment (FDI) of $8.1 billion in the month of March 2012. The highest ever number for the monthly FDI inflows has been that of $5.65 billion received in June last year. The money has come in despite the Vodafone tax dispute which many believed would impact FDI flows into the country.

The addition has taken cumulative FDI inflows for the fiscal 2011-12 to $36.50 billion. The inflows had aggregated to $19.42 billion in 2010-11, however, down from $25.83 billion in 2009-10.

A major contributor to the total inflows has been the deal worth $7.2 billion between Reliance Industries-British Petroleum (BP) which was announced in February 2011. The money from the deal has however come into the country in phases. The UK oil major has picked up a 30% stake in Reliance Industries' 21 oil-fields. The sectors that received substantial amounts of foreign FDI inflows during 2011-12 were services, pharmaceuticals, telecom, construction, power and metallurgical industries with Mauritius being the top FDI source.

The retrospective tax amendment brought in by the government in this year’s Union Budget had received a lot flak with most believing that such changes would adversely affect India’s FDI inflows. The government however has stood its ground and stated that the amendment was not brought in with the view of targeting any particular industry but was done to put the law into perspective. The provision has been approved by the Lok Sabha on May 08, 2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,037.25, higher by 62.45 points or 1.26%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,037.95 and 4,984.15 respectively.  There were 42 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 5.29%, Cairn India up by 4.25%, Kotak Bank up by 3.56%, Axis Bank up by 3.39% and Reliance Infra up by 3.17%.

On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 1.58%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.30%, PNB down by 1.07%, Coal India down by 0.80% and Infosys down by 0.79% were the major losers on the index.

The other Asian indices continued to show mixed trend; Shanghai Composite up 0.06, up by 0.03%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.27% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.11%.

On the other hand, Hang Seng lost 0.75%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.18%, %, Nikkei 225 down by 0.39%, Straits Times lost 0.06% and Kospi Composite was marginally down by 0.27%.

The European markets recovered from earlier day’s lows as Germany’s DAX rose 0.77% United Kingdom’s FTSE gained 0.20%, France’s CAC 40 down 0.09%.