SUSTAINED BUYING

With most of the early gainers trading firm on sustained buying support, the market, after rising sharply on strong global cues and impressive results from IT major HCL Technologies continue to trade strength to strength as the benchmark indices have added few more points to their kitty. Also strong monsoon forecast by IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) has raised optimism that farm output may increase and help fight inflation. However, leading the bulls were the Stocks of financials, IT, capital goods and metal sectors. Financials such as ING Vyasya Bank added 2.56% and Yes Bank gained 2.27 % ahead of their earnings, while Metal producers such as Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries and Hindalco Industries added enthusiasm in the market tracing firm international base metal prices after upbeat US housing starts data on Tuesday. HCL Technologies, a medium sized software services provider surged 7% after it reported upbeat results which gave fillip to frontline IT shares that were beaten down badly after disappointing Infosys earnings. The company has posted a growth of 26.38% in its net profit for the quarter ended March 2011 at Rs 331.81 crore on Q-o-Q basis and on the consolidated basis (as per US GAAP), the group has posted a net income of $103.50 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 on Q-o-Q basis.

On the global front, US markets bounced back overnight on the back of some good earnings report coupled with good home construction report, while the Asian markets tracking them are showing good gains in early trade. The US future indices too are showing an uptick on the screen trade. The 30 scrip barometer index on Bombay Stock Exchange--Sensex--has garnered a gain of 1% and is currently trading above the 19300 mark, while the widely followed 50 share index on National Stock Exchange (NSE)-- Nifty--is close to re-claiming its 5800 mark. The broader indices too have participated in the rally and are currently outperforming their larger counterparts by gaining over a percent each.  The overall market breadth on BSE is undoubtedly in the favour of advances which have thrashed declines in the ratio of 1810:551, while, 80 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,312.45, up by 190.62 points or 1.00%. The index has touched a high and low of 19,334.50 and 19,254.98 respectively. There were 29 stocks advancing against just 1 decline on the index.

The broader indices continue to outperform the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 1.36% and 1.39% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.36%, TECk up by 1.74%, IT up by 1.73%, CD up by 1.71% and Metal up by 1.64%.There were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were M&M up by 2.98%, TCS up by 2.97%, DLF up by 2.58%,Bharti Airtel up by 2.37% and Hindalco up by 2.17%. On the flip side, only Hero Honda was down by 3.45% on the index.

Meanwhile, India's exports have recorded a bumper year in fiscal 2010-11, showing the highest growth in the post-independence period at 37.5%. Total merchandise exports of the country reached $246 billion in FY11, comfortably crossing the target of $200 billion worth exports set by the ministry of commerce and industry a year ago.

Commerce minister Anand Sharma while releasing the trade figures on Tuesday said, 'Exports have indeed exceeded our expectations. This is the highest annual percentage growth ever.' Explaining the reason behind good performance, Sharma said that while there has been an improvement in the demand for Indian goods in traditional markets like the US and EU with the recovery in global economy, a lot of exports have also come from new markets like Latin America.

There was also some role of low base effect though as explained by the commerce secretary Rahul Khullar. Since export growth was negative in 2009-10, total exports this year look all the more high when compared with low base of 2008-09. Nonetheless, even if the base effect is excluded, growth would have been around 30% which is impressive by any standards, accepted Khullar. Exports had declined last fiscal because of global slowdown and it was the main reason that commerce ministry had set a very conservative target for FY11. 

Looking at the sectoral performances, engineering goods, which comprise high-value added goods, formed the largest component of the country's exports. Total engineering goods shipments crossed the $60-billion mark with a growth of around 85%. Shipments of petroleum products stood at $42.45 billion, registering a growth of nearly 50% while the exports of gems and jewellery sector, which is another major earner of foreign exchange for the country, recorded a growth of 15% to touch $33.54 billion.

The S&P CNX is currently trading at 5,799.95, higher by 59.20 points or 1.03%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,806.40 and 5,782.40 respectively. There were 47 stocks advancing against just 3 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 7.19%, M&M up by 3.06%, TCS up by 2.95%, DLF up by 2.64% and Hindalco up by 2.22%.

Hero Honda down by 0.51%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.19% and GAIL down by 0.14, were the only losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was trading higher by 0.32%, Hang Seng rose 0.92%, Jakarta Composite gained 0.85%, KLSE Composite rose 0.41%, Nikkei 225 surged 1.73%, Straits Times was up by 0.42%, Seoul Composite  zoomed 1.84% and Taiwan Weighted expanded by 1.49%.