Wednesday, June 1, 2011

POSITIVE START

The Indian equity markets have made a positive start tracking supportive cues from the global indices. The US markets closed higher overnight while, most of the Asian counterparts were trading in the positive terrain at this point of time, indicating strong investors' sentiment. Back home, on the sectoral front metal witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by public sector undertaking and power while, consumer durables, realty and healthcare stocks remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. Meanwhile, Airlines stocks viz., Spicejet, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways India all were trading with a gain of more than two percent in the trade as Oil companies reduced aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price by Rs 2,327.89 per kiloliter or 3.95 per cent, to Rs 56,466.11 per kiloliter in Delhi effective Tuesday midnight. The market breadth has made a positive start; there were 1,175 shares on the gaining side against 559 shares on the losing side while 67 shares remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex opened at 18,527.12; about 24 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,503.28, and has touched a high and a low of 18,610.02 and 18,526.86, respectively. The index is currently trading at 18,574.21 up by 70.93 points or 0.38%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.
The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 65.24% stocks advancing against 31.04% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.48% and 0.62% respectively. 
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 0.91%, PSU up by 0.85%, Power up by 0.80%, CG up by 0.40% and Auto was up by 0.38%. While CD down by 0.67%, Realty down by 0.33% and HC down by 0.32% were the only losers on the index.
The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.28%, RCom up by 1.45%, Reliance Infra up by 1.35%, Jindal Steel up by 1.22% and HDFC was up by 1.04%.
On the flip side, DLF down by 1.15%, Jaiprakash Associates down by 0.64%, ICICI Bank down by 0.27%, Hindalco Industries down by 0.18% and Tata Motors down by 0.17% were the top losers on the index.
Meanwhile, Indian economic expansion slowed in the January-March quarter mainly on account of weak performance by mining and quarrying, manufacturing, contraction and trade, hotels, transport, and communication. However, for the fiscal year ending March 2011, the gross domestic product (GDP) maintained a robust growth rate, reassuring policy makers that the economy is in good shape despite sustained monetary tightening over the past year.
According to the data released by Central Statistics Office (CSO), India's GDP at factor cost at constant (2004-05) prices for the full fiscal year ended March 31 showed a growth rate of 8.5% over the 8% GDP growth for the year 2009-10. While the quarterly estimates of GDP for the fourth quarter showed a growth rate of 7.8% against 9.4% year-on-year and 8.3% quarter on quarter.
On sectoral basis, farm sector recorded smart growth of 7.5% against 1.1% registered in the same period a year ago, boosted by a good winter harvest, but manufacturing growth figures disappointed as they came in at 5.5% in the three months through March from a year earlier, compared with a 6% gain in the previous quarter and 15.2% year-on-year. The manufacturing activity has been slowed by nine interest rate hikes in the past 15 months to tackle the rampant inflation.
Nonetheless, the GDP figures reflect the resilience of Asia's third-largest economy which has expanded at a swift pace despite the odds that emerged not only from the domestic macro-economic front but also from the global front including turbulences like civil upheaval in the Middle East and North African nations and the Euro-zone debt crisis. Continued domestic demand on the back of rising income levels helped the Indian economy to clock the robust growth, second only to neighboring China among major economies. But the steady growth is expected to give the Reserve Bank of India more confidence to continue raising interest rates to rein in uncomfortably high inflation.
The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,561.05; flat compared to its previous closing of 5,560.15, and has touched a high and a low of 5,589.15 and 5,559.45 respectively.
The index is currently trading at 5,580.95, higher by 20.80 points or 0.37%. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were NTPC up by 2.70%, SAIL up by 2.24%, GAIL up by 1.92%, Reliance Capital up by 1.82% and ACC up by 1.63%.
Ranbaxy down by 1.43%, DLF down by 1.32%, Sun Pharma down by 1.13%, Dr Reddy down by 0.86% and Jaiprakash Associates was down by 0.81%, were the major losers on the index.
Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Jakarta Composite was up 13.81 points or 0.36% to 3,850.77, Nikkei 225 was up 13.36 points or 0.14% to 9,707.09, Straits Times was up 18.34 points or 0.58% to 3,178.27, Seoul Composite was up 5.97 points or 0.28% to 2,148.44 and Taiwan Weighted was up 91.03 points or 1.01% to 9,079.87.
On the flip side, KLSE Composite was down 2.83 points or 0.18% to 1,555.46, Hang Seng was down 33.14 points or 0.14% to 23,650.99 and Shanghai Composite was down by 6.75 points or 0.25% to 2,736.73

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