SOME RESPITE

Retreat of beleaguered Indian currency from record low level, surely gave some sense of respite to Indian equity markets, which halting five session's losses, have enticed little more traction in comparison to early deals. The rupee strengthened sharply to trade beneath perilous 54/$ mark after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stepped in with what dealers called 'massive' intervention, signaling an intent to defend the beleaguered domestic currency.

After having priced in negatives like Greece concerns, sliding rupee, and inflation, bourses have managed to scoop up some gains, as availability of select blue chip stocks at attractive prices, have surely delighted jittery investors. Although mixed trend of Asian counterparts, has failed to lend any support to benchmark indices, nevertheless, value buying has did the required. Although 30 scrip sensitive index, Sensex, on BSE, is increasingly close to 16300 bastion, 50 share index, Nifty, on NSE, is trading above the 4900 fortress. The broader indices, however, in sync with regional counterparts, are exhibiting mixed trend.

Asian shares were mostly favoring decline as investors liquidated riskier assets and sought refuge from the political turmoil fuelling fears of Greece's exit from the euro and threatening to ruin any progress made so far to solve the euro zone debt crisis. Greek president President Karolos Papoulias has gathered party leaders to hear his proposal on Tuesday, but opponents of austerity steps needed in exchange for an international bailout expressed little hope for resolving a deadlock, pushing the country towards a new vote which the anti-bailout leftists are likely to win.

Global risk aversion came as silver lining for oil marketing companies, which gained slender traction after brent crude prices fell to 5 month low level investors grew increasingly worried about crude's demand prospects with no resolution on Greece. Stocks from Auto, Consumer Durable and Realty counters were among the worst performers, while Capital Goods, Information Technology and TECk counters, battled out against all odds.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,284.97, up by 69.13 points or 0.43%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,297.96 and 16,123.04 respectively.   There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were exhibiting mixed trend; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.02% and Small cap index was down by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CG up by 2.48%, IT up by 0.60%, TECk up by 0.41%, Bankex and Metal up by 0.35%. While, Auto down by 0.55%, Consumer Durable (CD) down by 0.47%, Realty down by 0.21%, PSU down by 0.13% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 4.10%, Cipla up by 1.44%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.30%, Tata Power up by 1.07% and Jindal Steel up by 1.06%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.88%, NTPC down by 1.22%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.11%, Mahindra & Mahindra  and Tata Motors were down by 0.96% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, expressing his concern over rise in food inflation has said that the prices could be kept under check through institutional reforms in agricultural marketing and he would discuss the issue with states.

FM raised his concern after the WPI inflation accelerated to 7.23% in the month of April as compared to 6.89% in March 2012. Buildup inflation in the financial year so far was 2.07% compared to a build up of 1.74% in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the food front, the inflation increased to 10.49 percent in April from 10.66 percent in March, mainly on the back of spurt in prices of vegetables, fruits meat, milk, pulses, and other items.

Though, agriculture marketing is a state subject and most of the states have their own Agricultural Produce Market Committees Act (APMC) to regulate such sales. But the Central government had circulated a model APMC Bill to bring reforms in the agricultural sector. However, so far only 16 states have amended their Acts based on the model provided by the centre. The Model APMC Act leads to de-democratisation of agricultural markets and therefore limits the rights of the farmers to control agricultural markets.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,920.30, up by 12.50 points or 0.25%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,928.75 and 4,868.55 respectively. There were 28 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index, while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up by 4.19%, Sesa Goa up by 1.77%, Cipla up by 1.56%, Siemens up by 1.44% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.40%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.11%, Dr Reddy down by 1.82% IDFC down by 1.73%, Tata Motors down by 1.08% and NTPC down by 1.05%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.81%, Jakarta Composite slid 0.98%, KLSE Composite descended 0.86%, Nikkei 225 shed 0.89%, KOSPI Composite skid 0.67%

On the flip side, Hang Seng was up by 0.27%, Straits Times added 0.37% and Taiwan Weighted added 0.25%.