TRADING FIRM

Benchmark equity indices are trading firm with huge gains near their day's high level in late morning session on the back of strong global cues. The local market which has been hit because of huge sell off for the past one week seems to be extending the relief rally today. All the regional peers are trading strong, bouncing back from the biggest weekly decline since August; after Japan's gross domestic product shrank less than expected and after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned while US index futures were also trading in positive terrain. Back home, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading above their physiological level of 18,000 and 5,400 mark respectively. All sectoral indices were trading in green, however market biggie RIL was trading in negative terrain, down by   0.51 %.Tata Motors was the top gainer up by 5.53%on the back of strong Q3 earnings. The auto index has surged by 3.06 %. The market breadth on the BSE was in extremely positive; the gainers thrashed the losers in the ratio of 2212:405 while 57 shares remained unchanged .The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices ,the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices advanced 2.57% and 3.56%, respectively.

The BSE Sensex surged by 342.51 points or 1.93% at 18,071.12.The index touched a high and a low of 18,082.87 and 17, 857.12, respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices advanced 2.57% and 3.56%, respectively.

In BSE sectoral indices, Capital Goods (CG) up by 3.35%, Auto up by 3.06%, Metal up by 2.82%, Consumer Durables (CD) up by 2.78% and Bankex up 2.42% were the main gainers in the BSE sectoral space while there were no loser's on the index.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex were Tata motors up by 5.53%, L&T up by 4.37%, Jindal Steel up by 4.29%, Tata Power up by 3.64% and Tata Steel by 3.18%.There were only two losers on the BSE, RIL down by 0.51% and DLF down by 0.34%.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised the conservative financial reform strategy of India that has helped the country save itself from the global financial crisis which saw most of the countries de-growing and the financial system of the rich world nearly collapsing.

The IMF has said that while the multilateral institute had recommended in 2007 that India continue to move forward with liberalization of financial markets and the capital account, but the country preferred to go slow and conservative.  Now, many officials in the IMF feel that the success of the country in weathering the crisis in a far better way than most other countries can be attributed, at least partially, to its more conservative banking sector and gradual approach to liberalization.

When the crisis was in making in the developed world, the RBI, under the stewardship of Governor Y V Reddy, started tightening monetary policy. Despite calls from foreign and domestic policy makers alike, the central bank tightened the banks' exposure into realty sector and made sure overall exposure of India to the complex (securitized) products of large banks was the least. This proved to be the boon for India when the crisis finally struck the world.

Meanwhile the IMF has also accepted its weakness in terms of preventing the global financial crisis from happening and its failure to see what at least some independent economists could see coming. 'The IMF provided few clear warnings about the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the impending crisis before its outbreak,' read a recent self evaluation report of the IMF prepared by its Independent Evaluation Office (IEO).

Several reasons have been cited by the multilateral agency for its failure including unwillingness to go beyond the group thinking, inability to see beyond what some of the big banks and rich member countries were saying and lack of innovative financial oversight. To be honest, the IEO report does not blame the IMF for failing to prevent the crisis, but it does criticizes the Fund for not even being able to identify the evolving risks and vulnerabilities that led the financial system into its fragile position in September 2008.

The S&P CNX Nifty advanced 111.60 points or 2.10% to 5,421.60. The index touched a high and a low of 5,421.65 and 5,340.25, respectively. 

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex were Tata Motors up by 5.84%, Jindal Steel up 4.96%, Reliance Capital up 4.61%,L&T up by 4.43% and Tata Power up by 3.43% .

The losers of the index were DLF down 0.40%, Reliance down 0.38% and Siemens down0.11%.

All the regional peers  were trading in green; Shanghai composite surged 2.15%,Hang Seng gained 1.07%,Jakarta Composite picked up 0.97%, Taiwan Weighed climbed  0.88%, KLSE Composite rose 1.02%, Straits Times added 1.13% and Seoul Composite accelerated by 1.87%.