MARKETS EXTEND GAINS

Indian equity markets extended early gains and currently trading near high point of the day on the back of buying across blue chip counters. Following, RBI's disappointing credit policy, benchmarks are trading volatile amid euro-zone concerns. Investors were waiting for some positive triggers before making any strong position. On sectoral front FMCG, health care, oil and auto stocks were trading with good gains. Rate sensitive sectors like realty, banking continued trading in red. In currency markets, rupee erased some early losses in late morning session after its sharp contraction against dollar in the previous session. On the global front, most Asian markets declined in early trade as Spain's financial problems cast fresh shadows over Europe's economic outlook. Back home, the market breadth favoring negative trend; there were 948 shares on the gaining side against 1,336 shares on the losing side while 121 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,771.07, up by 65.24 points or 0.39%. The index has touched a high and low of 16802.90 and 16681.89 respectively.

The broader indices continued to trade lower; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 0.07% and 0.07% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 1.41%, Health Care up by 0.93%, Oil & Gas up by 0.84%, Auto up by 0.36% and Capital Goods up by 0.32%.

On the other hand Realty was down by 0.44%, IT down by 0.39%, Bankex down by 0.30%, Power down by 0.30% and TECk was down by 0.29%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.32%, Cipla up by 1.43%, Sun Pharma up by 1.22%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.01% and L&T up by 1.01%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Inds down by 1.82%, Infosys down by 1.39%, BHEL down by 1.17%, Coal India down by 0.88% and Tata Power down by 0.81% were the major losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile India's mineral production of mining and quarrying sector declined by 16.6% in April, mainly led by over 35% dip seen in coal output. Production of almost all minerals except bauxite and chromite declined in the month and the sector recorded a negative growth of 3.1% in April 2012 against the corresponding month of previous year.

As per the data released by the ministry of mines, the total value of mineral production barring atomic & minor minerals in April was Rs 17,084 crore. The contribution of petroleum (crude) was the highest at Rs 5,671 crore (33%) followed by coal Rs 4,849 crore, iron ore Rs 3,593 crore, natural gas (utilized) Rs 1,330 crore, lignite Rs 467 crore and limestone Rs 309 crore. These six minerals together contribute for about 95% of the total value of mineral production in April 2012.

Production of coal saw the highest decline of 34.8% at 421 lakh tonnes as compared to the previous month. Similarly, gold production witnessed 31% decline at 119 kg, followed by 26% in manganese ore output at 170 thousand tonnes, 20% in apatite and phosphorite at 205 thousand tonnes, lignite 17%, copper 13% and 12% in lead concentrate.

Production of natural gas (utilized) output was recorded at 3555 million cu.m., petroleum (crude) at 31 lakh tones, a fall of 2.3%. The output of bauxite, however, increased by 10.4% and chromite by 7.2% in April.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,078.35, up by 14.10 points or 0.28%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,086.50 and 5,048.10 respectively. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 declines and one remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ITC up by 2.24%, Ranbaxy up by 2.15%, Grasim up by 2.11%, Cipla up by 1.42% and Ambuja Cement up by 1.29%. On the flip side, BoB down by 1.69%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.67%, Cairn down by 1.48%, Infosys down by 1.44% and PNB down by 1.22% remained the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined by 0.44%, Hang Seng Index shed 0.32%, Nikkei 225 was down by 0.75% and Taiwan Weighted declined by 0.11%.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite rose 0.34%, KLSE Composite gained 0.56% KOSPI Composite Index lost 0.05 points and Straits Times Index was up by 0.56%.