MARGINAL GAINS

Indian equity markets have pared some gains in the noon session, though the Asian markets are trading firmly in green but some profit booking in the sectoral and blue chip stocks on the domestic front is weighing on the markets. Though, the traders were looking for value buying in the oversold stocks, there was some recovery in the IT sector stocks as Infosys moved in green but they too have given up their gains and have limited the rise of the bourses, however the benchmark indices are still managing to hold their crucial 17200 (Sensex) and 5200 (Nifty) levels.The monsoon concern too was keeping the investors mood cautious, while the pharma stocks have taken the lead and were supporting the markets to hold their gains.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17171.35 up by 68.04 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 17236.08 and 17149.05 respectively. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The broader indices too have pared their gains; the BSE Mid cap index was flat while the Small cap index was marginally up by 0.04%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, HC up by 1.30%, FMCG up by 0.66%, Bankex up by 0.44%, Metal up by 0.33 and BSE PSU index up by 0.22%, while BSE IT was down by 0.52%, TECk down by 0.13% and Power was down by 0.05% on the BSE.

Sun Pharma up by 2.25%, Dr Reddy up by 2.24%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.81%, Hindalco up by 1.01% and ICICI Bank up by 0.99% were the top gainers on the Sensex, while TCS down by 2.08%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.87%, Jindal Steel down by 0.54%, BHEL down by 0.54% and GAIL down by 0.23% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, in line with firm international oil rates, state owned oil companies, putting an end to their three month trend of price cuts, have hiked the prices of ATF or Jet fuel by 1.7%. Prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) or jet fuel in national capital were hiked by Rs 1,039.10 per kilolitre (kl) or 1.7% to Rs 62,208.18. In Mumbai, jet fuel will cost Rs 63,002.45 per kl from today as compared Rs 61,933.58 per kl previously.

The reduction in rates in six fortnights mainly triggered the increase in jet fuel prices, including a 5 per cent (Rs 3,260 per kl) cut in prices effected from June 16 and nearly 2 per cent (Rs 1,241 per kl) cut effected from July 1. Jet fuel, which scaled an all-time high level of Rs 71,028.26 per kl in August 2008 shortly after international oil rates touched a record $147 per barrel, fell to an eight-month low of Rs 61,169.08 per kl earlier this month.

However, this development, may came as blow to the beleaguered Indian airlines, as jet fuel constitutes more than 40% of the airline's operating cost.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,211.80, up by 14.55 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 5,236.70 and 5,208.15 respectively. There were 30 stocks advancing against 19 declines, while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The major gainers on the Nifty were Dr Reddy up by 2.31%, Sun Pharma up by 2.24%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.86%, Ranbaxy up by 1.32% and PNB was up by 1.21%.  While BPCL down by 2.37%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.95%, TCS down by 1.86%, Reliance Infra down by 1.38% and HCL Tech down by 1.24% were major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.25%, Hang Seng index surged by 1.57%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.51 % and KLSE Composite gained 0.61%, Nikkei 225 added 0.35%, and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.52%.