GAP UP START

Key domestic bourses have made a gap up opening tracking firm Asian markets. All the Asian equity indices were trading in the positive terrain as investors remained in an optimistic mood after Greece implemented the biggest debt write-down in history and bonds with a total face value of $222 billion were swapped. Meanwhile, all eyes are on FOMC meet today and the street is expecting the rate to remain unchanged. Even the market is looking for some indications of QE3 as well as comments on strength in US economic data. Back home, sustained buying in mostly all the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE's -- Sensex -- and NSE's -- Nifty -- to regain their crucial 17,750 and 5,400 mark respectively. The morning session trade was led by realty, metal, power and capital goods, PSU and oil & gas stocks with each up by 1-2 percent while, there were no losers on the BSE sectoral space. Meanwhile, Auto stocks like Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto all edged higher with auto companies sales rising by 13% in February to 2,11,402 units, the highest pace of growth since April 2011. The broader indices too were trading on a firm note. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,167 shares on the gaining side against 394 shares on the losing side while 62 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,680.23; about 93 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,587.67, and has touched a high of 17,800.15 while low remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 17,775.69, up by 188.02 points or 1.07%. There were 29 stocks advancing against only 1 decline on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 71.90% stocks advancing against 24.28% declines. The broader indices too were trading on a firm note; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.92% and 0.84% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CG up by 1.85%, Metal up by 1.80%, Realty up by 1.77%, Power up by 1.45% and Oil and Gas up by 1.19%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.33%, Jindal Steel up by 2.85%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.58%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.13% and Tata Power up by 2.00%. Meanwhile, Wipro down by 1.64% remained the lone loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Indian economy is expected to get back to its 8-9% growth trajectory soon given its strong long term fundamentals as per the President of India, Pratibha Patil. While addressing the joint session of Parliament on first day of the budget session, the president stated that the government plans to achieve a 9% annual growth target in the five-year plan period ending on March 31, 2017.

She observed that though growth has slowed down to 7% this fiscal, it is still healthy given the global trends. As per Patil, the Indian economy is backed by strong fundamentals like high domestic savings and investment rates, favourable demographics, and stable democratic polities which will help bring it back to its earlier growth of 8-9%.

She also recounted the government's efforts made to contain price rise like the intervention by the Reserve Bank of India in terms of rate cuts and government's measures to ease the supply constraints, like reduction in import duties and a calibrated ban on exports.

The economy grew at an average rate of more than 9% between 2005-06 and 2007-08. The growth rate fell to 6.7% in 2008-09 on account of global financial crisis, but recovered the momentum to 8.4% in 2009-10 and 2010-11. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who will present the budget on March 16, is expected to set a target of 7.5-8% economic growth for the 2012-13 fiscal beginning on April 1.

She further stated that the government is committed to working on five most important challenges faced by the Indian economy. She described the first challenge as livelihood security, the second as economic security, the third as ensuring energy security, the fourth challenge as realizing development goals without jeopardizing ecological and environmental security and the fifth as guaranteeing internal and external security.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,391.05; about 32 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,359.55, and has touched a high and a low of 5,424.95 and 5,390.80 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,415.60, higher by 56.05 points or 1.05%. There were 48 stocks advancing against just 2 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sesa Goa up by 3.25%, BHEL up by 3.11%, Jindal Steel up by 2.42%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.22% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.12%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.68% and RInfra down by 0.16% remained the only losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng was up 266.20 points or 1.26% to 21,400.38, Jakarta Composite was up 11.99 points or 0.30% to 3,999.33, KLSE Composite was up 2.26 points or 0.14% to 1,567.01, Nikkei 225 was up 95.04 points or 0.96% to 9,984.90, Straits Times was up 21.76 points or 0.73% to 2,983.94, Seoul Composite was up 24.50 points or 1.22% to 2,027.00 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 104.84 points or 1.32% to 8,032.39.