Benchmarks hit nearly 4-week high in morning trade

Sentiments remained bullish in the morning trade with markets hitting nearly 4 week highs, extending gains for the second straight session on continued buying by funds and retailers tracking positive global cues. The US markets extended the rally mood of last week on Monday on hope of more European Central Bank assistance for the troubled euro zone, as European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi said the ECB plans to buy short-dated bonds to lower borrowing costs to help Europe. While, most of the Asian equity indices were also trading in the positive terrain. Back home, BSE’s -- Sensex -- and NSE’s -- Nifty - inching towards their crucial, 17,500 and 5,300 mark respectively, supported by most of the index heavyweights along with broader indices. On sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and auto while, oil and gas and consumer durables remained the few losers on the BSE sectoral space. The software stocks edged higher after New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp stood by its full-year revenue forecast at the time of announcement of its second quarter results. The broader indices were going neck to neck with benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 923 shares on the gaining side against 527 shares on the losing side while 85 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,456.37; about 44 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,412.96, and has touched a high and a low of 17,481.78 and 17,417.92 respectively. The index is currently trading at 17,468.49, up by 55.53 points or 0.32%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 60.13% stocks advancing against 34.33% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.41% and 0.35% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.10%, TECk up by 1.03%, Auto up by 0.86%, HC up by 0.74% and Realty up by 0.66%. While, Oil and Gas down by 0.23% and CD down by 0.16% remained the few losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.41%, Infosys up by 1.47%, Sun Pharma up by 1.45%, BHEL up by 1.29% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.22%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.25%, Coal India was down by 0.70%, RIL was down by 0.66%, HDFC was down by 0.44% and NTPC was down by 0.39% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to boost investors’ confidence, Minister of Commerce & Industry of India, has decided to seek cabinet’s approval on new norms for the revival of special economic zones (SEZs). Several developers had surrendered their projects, after the levying of Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) on SEZs in 2010-11.

The SEZs had experienced a drastic slowdown after the levying of taxes. While, profit-linked benefits were the main attractions of the SEZ scheme. The government is planning incentives for developers who want to set up SEZs in remote and undeveloped areas and also to consider loosen up minimum land area requirement for different categories of SEZ, besides extending the benefits of export schemes to SEZ units in order to attract more investments in the sector.

Exports from SEZs were at Rs 3.65 lakh crore in 2011-12. With investment of Rs 2.02 lakh crore, these zones provided employment to over 8.45 lakh. The overseas shipments from the 153 operational tax-free havens have come down to 12 percent in the country's total exports from about 30 per cent in the previous years.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,295.40; about 13 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,282.55, and has touched a high and a low of 5,298.85 and 5,281.65 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,297.45, higher by 14.90 points or 0.28%. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.42%, IDFC up by 2.06%, Axis Bank up by 1.53%, Infosys up by 1.41% and BHEL up by 1.29%.

On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.38%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.21%, RIL down by 0.73%, NTPC down by 0.63% and Power Grid down by 0.54%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the green; Hang Seng added 63.22 points or 0.32% to 20,061.94, Jakarta Composite gained 3.61 points or 0.09% to 4,108.03, Nikkei was up by 52.44 points or 0.60% to 8,778.73, Straits Times added 7.01 points or 0.25% to 3,079.21 and Kospi Composite was marginally up by 0.87 points or 0.05% to 1,886.96.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down by 1.53 points or 0.07% to 2,153.38, KLSE Composite lost 2.19 points or 0.13% to 1,637.24 and Taiwan Weighted declined by 6.11 points or 0.08% to 7,280.03.