DECENT RECOVERY

Post previous sessions' massacre, key domestic bourses have made a decent recovery in Friday's morning trade as investors remained busy in buying beaten down fundamentally strong stocks. On the global front, US stocks fell overnight, hit by more warnings in the technology sector while, Asian markets were trading slightly higher on China's second-quarter gross domestic product figures. The gains remained capped after Moody's downgrade of Italy's credit rating threatened to rekindle worries over Europe's debt crisis. Back home, the rupee rose in line with a jump in risk assets after China's second quarter gross domestic product landed in line with forecasts. The rupee was at 55.67 a dollar against the previous close of 55.93. Moreover, sustained buying in most of the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE's -- Sensex -- and NSE's -- Nifty -- to regain their crucial 17,300 and 5,250 mark respectively. The sentiments were also supported by better than expected TCS Q1 numbers. The net profit of the company grew by nearly 12% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3280.5 crore, which was quite better results as compared to software bellwether Infosys. Banking, capital goods and technology remained the top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE while, there were no losers on the index. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,273 shares on the gaining side against 400 shares on the losing side while 69 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,269.20; about 37 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,232.55, and has touched a high and a low of 17,339.21 and 17,264.79 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,334.39, up by 101.84 points or 0.59%. There were 27 stocks advancing against only 3 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 73.08% stocks advancing against 22.96% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.73% and 0.97% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 0.82%, CG up by 0.82%, TECk up by 0.69%, Metal up by 0.56% and IT up by 0.55%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.21%, HDFC Bank up by 1.30%, Cipla up by 1.29%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.09% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.94%. While, Infosys down by 0.67%, Sun Pharma down by 0.47% and HUL down by 0.24% remained the few losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail will boost a good amount of investment in the back-end supply chain of farm commodities, as per the joint report by ASSOCHAM-Yes Bank. The report pointed that a good revival in farm sector can be attained if government kick starts various agricultural reforms, including streamlining of policy norms to promote private sector investments in agriculture.

Likewise, the agricultural productivity can be accelerated, while building strong forward and backward linkages across the entire agri-value chain, and thus the agriculture sector can be empowered to meet the rising demand of food products. It also says public-private partnerships (PPP) with institutional and policy support is needed to revive the farm sector.

Further, the report also suggested the government that the investments in agri-supply chain can be encouraged by providing some incentives to corporates who engage in agricultural investments. And the private players who enter the sector through PPP mode with the government can bring a vast change in the unorganized Indian agricultural industry and the complex agi-supply chain.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,242.75; about 7 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,235.25, and has touched a high of 5,266.75 while low remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 5,266.40, higher by 31.15 points or 0.60%. There were 45 stocks advancing against just 5 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 2.37%, HCL Tech up by 1.36%, HDFC Bank up by 1.33%, Cipla up by 1.32% and Axis Bank up by 1.31%.

On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.64%, Sun Pharma down by 0.30%, Tata Power down by 0.30%, Power Grid down by 0.27% and HUL down by 0.18% remained the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng was up by 86.15 points or 0.45% to 19,111.26, Jakarta Composite was up 30.04 points or 0.75% to 4,014.16, KLSE Composite was up 0.59 points or 0.04% to 1,626.08, Nikkei 225 was up by 31.17 points or 0.36% to 8,751.18, Straits Times was up 7.28 points or 0.24% to 2,979.32 and KOSPI Composite was up by 23.23 points or 1.30% to 1,808.62.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.67 points or 0.03% to 2,184.82 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 15.68 points or 0.22% to 7,115.25.