MARKETS CONTINUE TO SPARKLE

Indian stock markets continued their northbound journey in the afternoon session of trade as sanguine investors relentlessly piled up hefty positions in the heavyweight stocks. The fact that there was no laggard in the fifty stock Nifty index itself shows the optimism among the market participants. In the meantime, the frontline indices have also gone on to erase the week's losses and are expected to resume the weekly uptrend, after suffering around one and half a percent loss last week. On the global front, the European markets began their day on an encouraging note after the European Union leaders carved out a second bailout package worth 109 billion euros ($157 billion) for debt-stricken Greece in a desperate effort to contain the 18-month-long debt crisis in the single-currency bloc of 17 nations. Back home, the information technology counter witnessed hefty position build up as uncertainty over earnings of software exporting companies reduced on expectations that Europe's debt crisis will not spread. The surge of around one and half a percent in index heavyweight Reliance Industries too buttressed the benchmarks. However, the only chink in the armor on the BSE sectoral space was Consumer Durables counter which languished in the negative territory with around a percent loss. Meanwhile, the broader markets too are trading with strong gains but are being outclassed by the larger peers by quite a margin. The bourses consolidated on good volumes as the turnover for the market already has surged over a lakh crore for the session while the market breadth on BSE was in favor of advances in the ratio of 1655:946 while 130 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,702.41 up by 266.22 points or 1.44% after trading as high as 18,724.71 and as low as 18,533.43. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 decline on the index.
The broader indices were trading on a strong note; the BSE Mid cap index surged 0.99% and Small cap climbed by 0.71% respectively. 
On the BSE sectoral space, Teck up 1.59%, IT up 1.51%, Oil & Gas up 1.47%, Capital Goods up 1.46% and Bankex up 1.38% were the major gainers, while Consumer Durables down 1.03% was the only loser on the index.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.54%, Tata Power up by 2.25%, Tata Motors up by 2.20%, HDFC up 1.79% and Infosys up 1.76%.
On the flip side, DLF down by 0.39% was the only losers on the index.
The Union Government is expected to allow additional export of 8 lakh bales of cotton, of the 8 lakh bales, 3 lakh bales are expected to be reserved for the Cotton Corporation of India and the rest 5 lakh bales would be lifted from private players. In order to control the domestic prices which are contributing to inflation, government is going slow on exports.
Cotton Association of India president Dhiren Sheth said, 'Prices will keep falling if further exports are now allowed. We are pushing for completely free export through open general license without quantitative restriction. International prices are stable and give Indian exporters an edge." Last month, government had allowed the export of 10 lakh bales as compared to upper limit of 55 Bales for present season (October 2010 to September 2011). But the exporters are demanding additional exports of 10 to 20 lakh bales in the coming months.   All India Ginners Association president Bharat Vala said, 'Only after the Cotton Association Board meeting scheduled on July 25, one would be able to know how many unsold bales are in the market and what the revised estimated crop size is. On the basis of this report, we expect the Group of Ministers meeting headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to decide the quantity of export.'
In the meantime, Tirupur Exporters Association president A Sakthivel said that the industry has lost Rs 1,000 crore in apparel exports per quarter owing to the closure of over 730 bleaching and dying units in the textile hub. After the order of Madras High Court, from January these bleaching and dying units have been closed for polluting water bodies.   
'Over one lakh workers both directly and indirectly employed by the apparel industry are jobless. About 70% of the industries are outsourcing the job work to Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Mysore, Kolkata and Mumbai but we still predict a production and export loss of 30% to 35%.' Sakthivel said whereas adding further he said that yarn worth Rs 700 crore has been lying unused in spinning mills with garment manufacturers reducing their manufacturing capacities.
The price of cotton have been reduced significantly, cotton yarn prices of 40 count yarn were reduced to Rs 160 per kg from Rs 274 in February 2011.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,625.75, higher by 84.15 points or 1.52% after trading as high as 5,629.45 and as low as 5,567.10. There were 50 stocks advancing against 0 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 3.01%, Bahrti Airtel up by 2.89%, Tata Power up by 2.72%, Grasim up by 2.42% and M&M up by 2.37%, while there were no losers on the index.
Asian markets are exhibiting optimistic trends as Shanghai Composite inched up 0.05%, Hang Seng rallied 1.66%, Jakarta Composite gained 0.50%, Nikkei 225 surged by 1.22%, Straits Times soared 1.06%, Seoul Composite jumped 1.22% and Taiwan Weighted climbed by 0.55%.
On the other hand, KLSE Composite slipped by 0.12%.
The European markets have opened on a optimistic note as France's CAC 40 gained 0.70%, Germany's DAX rose 0.46% and London's FTSE added 0.63%