BOUNCE BACK

Barometer gauges have doubled their profit in comparison to their early deals as the bounce back of stocks belonging from Technology counters; have led to the additional gains at Dalal Street. Buying which is seen across the space on the BSE sectoral chart, barring Information technology counter, has led to the pullback rally in Indian equity markets, which past two consecutive sessions were staging correction.

However, positive global leads mainly have influenced the trading sentiment at Dalal Street. Asian pacific markets borrowing cues from positive close of bourses at Wall Street on Monday were trading mostly positive. Asian stocks posted modest gains after data showed a slightly improved housing market in the U.S. and oil prices showed signs of softening after a recent surge, which provided some relief to investor worries about fresh headwinds for the global economy. Benchmark oil slipped below $108 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen. Meanwhile, the US future indices were showing an uptick in the screen trade.

Back on the home turf, fresh buying by funds and retailers at attractive lower levels, have mainly heaved the 30-share Sensex-higher by over 200 points, which in the past four sessions have lost nearly about 1000 of points. Meanwhile, Nifty, the wide-based index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) too has puff up over 75 points to trade above the 5350 level. The broader indices have added more than frontline indices and are shinning with gains of over 2% each. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which have thrashed declines in the ratio of 1657:654, while 92 shares have remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,687.09, up by 241.34 points or 1.38%. The index has touched a high and a low of 17,702.10 and 17,530.44 respectively.   There were 28 stocks advancing against just 2 declines on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 2.15% and 2.05% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 3.37%, Consumer Durable (CD) up by 2.98%, Metal up by 2.78%, Bankex up by 2.55% and Power up by 2.47%.On the flip side, IT down by 0.52% remained the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 4.71%, Hindalco Industries up by 4.47%, BHEL up by 4.22%, Tata Motors up by 4.04% and DLF up by 3.18%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.38% and infosys down by 0.26% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the expert committee on sugar decontrol constituted by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January 2012 is hopeful of submitting its report in the next six months. The committee under the chairmanship of Prime Minister's economic advisory panel, C Rangarajan, met for the first time on February 27, and is hopeful of submitting its report in the next six months. He further outlined various issues to proceed further relating to the sugar industry.

The members of the committee include Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, secretaries to the Department of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) Chairman, Ashok Gulati, former Agriculture Secretary, Nand Kumar, and the EAC Secretary, K P Krishnan.

India is the second largest producer and the largest consumer of sugar in the world.  Currently the industry is highly controlled by the government, right from the level of production to distribution. As per regulation, sugar mills are required to sell 10% of their output to the government at below-cost rates for supply to ration shops. Mills supply levy sugar at 60% of the cost of production which results in an annual loss of about Rs 2,500-3,000 crore. In addition, the Food Ministry also allocates the quantity of sugar that can be sold in the open market every month.

Apex sugar industry bodies Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) are seeking partial decontrol of the sector, including freedom to sell sugar in the open market and doing away with the levy obligation for the Public Distribution System.

Members of the expert committee are also of the view that the sector be de-regularized to unleash its true potential. Examples of countries like Brazil, where the sugar industry has flourished after being decontrolled, further strengthen this view. Sugar production in India is estimated to touch 26 million tonnes this fiscal as against the annual demand of 22 million tones.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,356.75, higher by 75.55 points or 1.43%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,357.20 and 5,306.45 respectively.  There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 declining one's on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Infra up by 6.06%, Sterlite Industries up by 4.75%, Hindalco Industries up by 4.57%, RCom up by 4.33% and IDFC up by 4.27%.

On the flip side, Cairn down by 1.72%, TCS down by 1.65%, HCL Tech down by 1.16% and Infosys down by 0.46% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the green; Hang Seng was up 84.79 points or 0.40%, Jakarta Composite rose 0.11%, Straits Times added 0.29% and Seoul Composite expanded 0.53%

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined by 0.39%, KLSE Composite descended 0.30% were the lone losers on the index.

Stock markets in Taiwan remained closed on Tuesday on account of Peace Memorial Day holiday.