Benchmarks trade firm after a flat start

The Indian equity markets are trading firm in the morning trade after making a flat start tracking good going in the Asian markets. All the Asian equity indices were trading in the positive terrain at this point of time shrugging off China's interest rate hike announced over the weekend. Back Home, sustained buying in key heavyweights was keeping the momentum on a positive side for the benchmark indices, consumer durables, capital goods and healthcare stocks were witnessing maximum gains in trade, while metal was the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks. Ravi Kumar Distilleries, the new listing today too made a decent debut on the bourses and was trading with a gain of about 26%. Moreover, Sugar stocks like Shree Renuka Sugar, Bajaj Hindustan and Balrampur Chini Mills all were trading with a gain of one percent to three and a half percent, as the Futures trading in sugar resumed today after a gap of one-and-a-half years, while telecom stocks viz Reliance Communication, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular all were trading with a cut of half to two and a half percent as the department of telecom (DoT) has slapped notices, seeking penalties running into hundreds of crore from those telecom firms, which got licences issued but have not rolled out services yet. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,110 shares on the gaining side against 524 shares on the losing side while 52 shares remained unchanged. Trade may remain volatile this week as it being the expiry week for the December F&O series.

The BSE Sensex opened at 20,062.60; about 11 points lower compared to its previous closing of 20,073.66, and has touched a high of 20,173.78 while low remain its opening. The index is currently trading at 20,146.22, up by 72.56 points or 0.36%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a good start with 65.84% stocks advancing against 31.08% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.45% and 0.57% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 1.05%, CG up by 0.85%, HC up by 0.71%, IT up by 0.50% and Realty was up by 0.48%. While, Metal down by 0.12% was the lone loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.32%, TCS up by 1.16%, L&T up by 0.98%, BHEL up by 0.80% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 0.77%.

Reliance Communication down by 3.14%, Sterlite Industries down by 0.92%, Relaince Infra down by 0.91%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.53% and Hindalco down by 0.42%, were the top losers on the index were.

Meanwhile, in order to cut the shortfall in coal availability, the coal ministry is charting a number of steps including urging the government to bring down the list of the 'no-go' areas as well as encouraging the state-owned as well as private companies to acquire coal mines in other developing countries particularly in the African region.

In context of reducing the 'no-go' areas, the ministry is now more hopeful particularly after having received the backing of Planning Commission in this context. Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission had said on Tuesday that environment and forest ministry should show flexible attitude on defining 'no-go' areas. Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has now said on Thursday that the issue will come up before the Cabinet next week to work out a solution. 'We have circulated a cabinet note 15 days back. Hopefully, it will be taken up by the cabinet next week for discussion and some way out will be found,' Jaiswal said.

The minister also said that state-run companies would seek deals to buy mines in South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique when he visits the continent next month in a bid to plug a domestic shortfall. "The top priority is to buy coal mines," Jaiswal said in an interview in New Delhi, adding, "We already have two mines in Mozambique and the government is seeking more there and in other countries in Africa."

Coal India, India's publically owned coal miner, is the world's biggest producer of the fuel, and among the state-owned companies looking for deposits overseas to feed an economy growing at more than 8% a year. The coal ministry has projected that domestic supply may fall short of demand by 83 million tonne in the current fiscal year. Although India is quite a bit late in this race for resources, the economy growing at 8-9% can still rapidly generate enough resources to be spent on acquisition of natural resources.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 6,013.30; flat compared to its previous closing of 6,011.60, and has touched a high and a low of 6,040.45 and 6,012.60 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,033.50, higher by 21.90 points or 0.36%. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 2.06%, Sun Pharma up by 1.52%, Dr Reddy up by 1.31%, Tata Power up by 1.27% and L&T up by 1.06%.

The top losers of the index were RCom down by 2.68%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.14%, Reliance Power down by 1.13%, Reliance Infra down by 0.88% and M&M was down by 0.66%.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up 19.75 points or 0.70% to 2,854.91, Jakarta Composite was up 3.68 points or 0.10% to 3,615.21, KLSE Composite was up 0.15 points or 0.01% to 1,511.73, Nikkei 225 was up 92.79 points or 0.90% to 10,371.98, Straits Times was up 27.35 points or 0.87% to 3,171.15, Seoul Composite was up 3.77 points or 0.19% to 2,033.37 and Taiwan Weighted was up 26.72 points or 0.30% to 8,887.82. 

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