FIRM START

The Indian equity markets have made a firm start tracking positive cues from global indices. The US markets rallied overnight on the back of some deals news along with ease in the Japanese crisis and the Asian markets too were trading mostly in the positive terrain at this point of time, indicating strong investors' sentiment. Back home, sustained buying in key heavyweights along with broader indices keeping the markets on the positive side. Realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by consumer durables and metal with no losers on the BSE sectoral space. Meanwhile sugar stocks viz., Shree Renuka Sugar, Bajaj Hindustan and Balrampur Chini all were trading with a gain of more than three percent on the buzz that India will allow 200,000 tonnes of sugar exports under unrestricted sales. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,041 shares on the gaining side against 512 shares on the losing side while 52 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,929.09; about 90 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,839.05, and has touched a high and a low of 17,939.83 and 17,878.80, respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,901.59, up by 62.54 points or 0.35%. There were 26 stocks advancing against just 4 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 64.86% stocks advancing against 31.90% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.60% and 0.51% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 0.72%, CD up by 0.59%, Metal up by 0.57%, HC up by 0.50% and CG was up by 0.46%. While there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.36%, Tata Steel up by 1.01%, NTPC up by 0.98%, Tata Motors up by 0.95% and Bharti Airtel was up by 0.90%.

On the flip side, Hero Honda down by 1.10%, ICICI Bank down by 0.54%, ONGC down by 0.46% and TCS down by 0.41% were the only losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India's import of sensitive items, including food grains and milk products, has increased 8.1% to Rs 52,492 crore during the April-December period of the current fiscal from Rs 48,548 crore a year ago. Sensitive category items includes items such as food grains, automobiles, milk and beverages and their import is monitored by the government to see if there is any adverse impact on the domestic industry.

According to the data, food grains import soared to Rs 226.54 crore during the first nine months of this fiscal from a mere Rs 41.49 crore in the year-ago period. While, imports of milk and dairy products increased to Rs 724.17 crore during the period under review compared with Rs 232.83 crore in the year-ago period; imports of automobiles rose to Rs 1,659.28 crore for this period against Rs 806.23 crore in the year-ago period.

As per the data, during April-December 2010-11, import of items such as alcoholic beverages and rubber also increased by 48.2% and 109.9%, respectively. Further, the increase in import of edible oils was 10.8% to Rs 20,791.5 crore over the year ago period. This increase was mainly on account of substantial increase in import of crude palm oil and its fractions. Import of products of small-scale industries like umbrella, locks, toys and glassware, too, went up by 54.6% to Rs 1,127.97 crore over the same period last year. However, import of pulses, and cotton and silk contracted by 26.1% and 26.2% during the period.

Import of sensitive items amounted to 4.7% of the country's total import during the period. The increase in import is being attributed to the rise in food inflation in the country. The gross import of all commodities during April-December, 2010-11 was Rs 11,26,513 crore as compared to Rs 9,91,605 crore during the same period last year.

While import of sensitive items from countries such as the US, UK, China, Korea, Argentina, Germany, Thailand, New Zealand have gone up; those from Myanmar, Brazil, Japan and Canada decreased during the period under review.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,390.85; about 26 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,364.75, and has touched a high and a low of 5,395.35 and 5,376.15 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,383.40, higher by 18.65 points or 0.35%. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SAIL up by 1.60%, Cipla up by 1.44%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.23%, Tata Motors up by 1.03% and Reliance Infra up by 1.01%.

Hero Honda down by 1.13%, Sunpharma down by 0.65%, ONGC down by 0.44%, ICICI Bank down by 0.37% and BPCL was down by 0.36%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian peers were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up 6.37 points or 0.22% to 2,915.50, Hang Seng was up 52.66 points or 0.23% to 22,737.88, Nikkei 225 was up 328.27 points or 3.57% to 9,535.02, Straits Times was up 5.93 points or 0.20% to 2,989.44, Seoul Composite was up 8.88 points or 0.44% to 2,012.30 and Taiwan Weighted was up 65.01 points or 0.77% to 8,532.72.

On the flip side KLSE Composite was down 0.21 points or 0.01% to 1,508.67 and Jakarta Composite was down by 9.38 points or 0.27% to 3,509.47.