GAP UP START

After three days of consolidation, the Indian equity markets have made a gap up start on hopes that the Government will announce economic reforms to revive the economy. Moreover, positive news coming from Europe also helped the gains in Indian markets after euro-zone leaders struck a deal by opening the door for its rescue funds to help bring down borrowing costs of nations. While, all the Asian counters were trading in the green at this point of time, indicating euphoric investors' sentiment. 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 17,250 and 5,200 mark respectively. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry proposing a monetary limit for invoking the controversial General Anti-Tax Avoidance Rules (GAAR) in its draft guidelines issued late last night too buoyed the trading sentiment. On the sectoral front, capital goods, FMCG, power, banking, healthcare, auto, realty, consumer durables and metal all were trading with over 1-2 percent in the trade. The broader indices too were trading with great traction and the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,147 shares on the gaining side against 372 shares on the losing side while 66 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,134.61; about 144 points higher compared to its previous closing of 16,990.76, and has touched a high of 17,282.68 while low remained its opening.

The index is currently trading at 17,257.79, up by 267.03 points or 1.57%. All the 30 stocks on the Sensex were on advance side.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 72.37% stocks advancing against 23.47% declines. The broader indices too were trading with traction; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.85% and 0.81% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CG up by 2.05%, Power up by 1.95%, FMCG up by 1.91%, Bankex up by 1.70% and HC up by 1.61%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.59%, Tata Power up by 2.93%, ITC up by 2.43%, BHEL up by 2.40% and ICICI Bank up by 2.40%. While there were no loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, according to the recent data released by the Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry, the production of crude oil in India registered a trivial increase of 0.5% in May to 3.25 million tonnes. May month's crude oil output at 3.25 million metric tonnes, which is equal to 768,200 barrels a day, rose marginally from 3.23 million tonnes in the same month last year period, but failed to surpass the government's forecast of 3.33 million tonnes.

Moreover, the production of natural gas in the country prolonged its receding trend in May for the 18th month in a row, underscoring the fact that India is struggling to keep up production at its ageing assets. In May, natural gas production plummeted by 10.8 percent to 3.70 billion cubic meters from last year's May month figure of 4.14 billion cubic meters, largely on account of sharp decline in gas production by major Reliance Industries from the D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari Basin. However, the numbers managed to surpass the government's forecast of 3.45 billion cubic meters.

The gap between India's total domestic gas production of about 115 mmscmd and gas demand of about 165 mmscmd, is met through imports. Asia's third largest India economy, which meets more than 75 percent of its energy needs through imports, has been taking serious efforts in order to boost domestic production as India's rising import bill has adversely impacted the nation's current account deficit and has also stocked inflationary pressures.

However, the declining potential of sedimentary basins and ageing and depleting fields have emerged as major roadblocks for the way of India's aim to boost domestic energy production. India, the world's fourth largest oil importer, saw its dependence on crude oil and gas imports expand as domestic refiners imported 5.8 percent more crude oil in May year-on-year at 14.586 million tonnes from 13.784 million tonnes in the same period last a year earlier, taking the refining capacity of the country to nearly 215 million tonnes.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,191.25; about 42 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,149.15, and has touched a high and a low of 5,233.10 and 5,189.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,226.05, higher by 76.90 points or 1.49%. There were 48 stocks advancing against only 2 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.65%, Tata Power up by 3.03%, BHEL up by 2.67%, ITC up by 2.51% and ICICI Bank up by 2.44%. While Cairn down by 6.48% and BPCL down by 0.42% remained the few losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite climbed 14.21 points or 0.65% to 2,210.05, Hang Seng Index jumped 403.47 points or 2.12% to 19,428.74, Jakarta Composite surged 59.12 points or 1.52% to 3,946.70, KLSE Composite advanced 6.63 points or 0.42% to 1,600.87, Nikkei 225 accumulated 133.21 points or 1.50% to 9,007.23, Straits Times Index soared 38.76 points or 1.36% to 2,885.58, KOSPI Composite Index garnered 13.12 points or 0.72% to 1,832.30 and Taiwan Weighted amassed 80.59 points or 1.12% to 7,250.20.