POSITIVE SESSION

Indian frontline equity indices continue to trade on an optimistic note in Tuesday afternoon trades as market participants continue to hunt for badly beaten down but fundamentally strong bargains after the colossal damage done in last eight back to back sessions. The benchmarks showed resilience and traded firmly above the psychological 4,800 (Nifty) and 16,000 (Sensex) levels, heading for the first close in the green zone in nine trading sessions. Marketmen were seen covering hefty short positions in the heavyweight stocks, two days ahead of the November series F&O contract settlement. Meanwhile the rupee too slipped from the high point of the day against the American dollar and traded with over half a percent gains. The first day of winter session of parliament failed to give any supportive cues to the markets as Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha adjourned till tomorrow on the back of uproar over various issues, including Telangana, price rise and corruption. On the global front, the Asian markets traded on a mixed note. Though most of the benchmarks in the region dived in early morning trades, however, most indices pruned early losses to claw back into the green terrain after reports that the two major  ratings agencies S&P's and Moody's, have reaffirmed US credit rating stating that the deficit committee's failure would not trigger an immediate downgrade. On the BSE sectoral space, market participants showed hefty buying interests in IT counters which surged by around two and half a percent while the Oil & Gas and beaten down rate sensitive counters also traded with firm gains. On the flipside the Consumer Durables index along with the defensive FMCG pocket traded in the negative terrain.
Moreover, the broader markets traded in the lackadaisical note as they barely budged from their previous closing levels and were outperformed by their larger peers. The bourses surged on good volumes of well over Rs 0.70 lakh core mark and the market breadth on BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 1267:1216 while 126 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,127.96 up by 181.86 points or 1.14% after trading as high as and 16,152.06 as low as 15,970.11. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.
The broader indices were trading on a flat note; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.07% and Small cap shed 0.01%.
On the BSE sectoral space, IT up 2.55%, TECk up 1.35%, Oil & Gas up 1.16%, Metal up 1.14% and Bankex up 1.08% were the major gainers while Consumer Durables down 2.60% and FMCG down 0.51% were the only losers in the space.
Tata Motors up 5.73%, JP Associates up 3.37%, Infosys up 3.04%, Hindalco up 2.52% and HDFC up 2.23% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Bharti Airtel down 3.17%, Tata Power down 1.56%, Bajaj Auto down 1.15%, HUL down 0.99% and M&M down 0.99% were the major losers in the index.
Meanwhile, the government, in a month's time, is likely to set price for ethanol and mandate a higher quantum to be blended with petrol under the Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP) to promote Bio-fuel. The Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah said that ' We will shortly decide the pricing of ethanol and take it to the Cabinet in about a month's time. We should move towards 10% blending from next year'.
Currently, the government has fixed a provisional price of ethanol at Rs 27 per litre. At this rate, the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) procure ethanol from sugar mills to implement the mandatory 5% ethanol blending with petrol as a part of EBP under national Policy on Bio-fuels. In October 2007, the government had decided for a mandatory 5% ethanol blending with petrol.
However, the sugar mill owners are unhappy with the provisional prices of ethanol, as they can get much higher price if they sell it for rectified spirit, which is also produced from the same feedstock molasses. Sugar millers are of the view that ethanol prices should be at Rs 35-36 per litre. On the other hand, Planning Commission member - Soumitra Chaudhari has suggested linking of ethanol price with international price of petrol, with a discount of 20%.
According to industry data, in the 2011-2012 marketing year (October-September), sugar mills have contracted to supply 600 million litres of ethanol to petrol firms at an ad-hoc price of Rs. 27 per litre. Last year, the sugar mills had contracted 540 million litres however, they were able to supply only 300 million litres.
Indian sugar industry produces 26 million tonne of sugar, 3.5 billion litres of alcohol and 2,300 Mega Watt power and is capable of meeting the demand of potable alcohol and 10% ethanol blending programme.
The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,827.80, higher by 49.45 points or 1.03% after trading as high as 4,835.30 and as low as 4,782.55. There were 37 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Tata Motors up 5.54%, JP Associates up 3.54%, Infosys up 2.88%, HDFC up 2.63% and IDFC up 2.58%.

Bharti Airtel down 3.22%, Siemens down 2.21%, Tata Power down 1.98%, Ambuja Cement down 1.74% and Bajaj Auto down 1.29% were the major losers on the index.
Asian markets continued to trade on weak note, Shanghai Composite dropped 0.16%, Hang Seng sank 0.55%, KLSE Composite shed 0.12%, Nikkei 225 declined 0.40% and Taiwan Weighted dived 0.61%.
On the flipside, Jakarta Composite gained 0.12%, Straits Times inched up 0.05% and Seoul Composite advanced 0.34%.