Markets extend their early gains; Sensex up 101 points

Indian equity indices extended their early gains in the mid-morning session tracking strong cues from most of the regional peers despite China's central bank's move to hike key rates over the weekend. Barring KLSE Composite and Seoul Composite, all other Asian counterparts were trading in the positive terrain at this point of time. Meanwhile, the US index futures were showing down-tick in screen trade. The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty were inching closer to the psychological 20,200 and 6,050 levels, respectively. All sectoral indices of the BSE were trading in the green with only exception of metal counter. Consumer durables, healthcare and capital goods stocks hogged the limelight. The mid-cap and small-cap pockets outperformed their large-cap peers in trade. The market breadth on the BSE was strong; there were 1732 shares on the gaining side against 801 shares on the losing side while 72 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex gained 101.23 points or 0.50% to 20,174.89. The index touched a high and a low of 20,190.13 and 20,062.60, respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices advanced 0.63% and 0.91%, respectively.

The main gainers in the BSE sectoral space were Consumer Durables (CD) up 1.17%, Healthcare (HC) up 1.06%, Capital Goods (CG) up 0.99%, Realty up 0.92% and Information Technology (IT) up 0.76%.

On the flip side, Metal down 0.11% was the sole loser in the BSE sectoral space.

Meanwhile, as the debate over listing of stock exchanges gets wider following the recommendations of a panel formed by the market regulator SEBI, the finance ministry may recommend to the regulator to allow listing of bourses but in a way that leaves no room or possibility of an exchange manipulating its own share.

One of the options is to allow the listing of stock exchanges only on rival bourses which will ensure there is no room for manipulation. This means that NSE can list on BSE or MCX-SX but not on NSE and so on for other exchanges. However, some other checks and balances will also be needed to be put in place to ensure that profit motives do not impact the listing of exchanges.

Earlier, the Bimal Jalan committee set up by the SEBI had recommended strict monitoring of profits and upheld the principle of diversified shareholding for the bourses. The report which comes as a setback to plans of listing by bourses had reiterated that the individual ownership cap in a stock exchange should be kept at 5% and also rejected the deal of listing of stock exchanges saying bourses should not become a vehicle for attracting speculative investments.  

The major gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up 1.33%, Tata Power up 1.28%, TCS up 1.25%, L&T up 1.21% and Jaiprakash Associates up 1.17%.

The major losers on the index were RCom down 1.66%, Sterlite Inds down 0.95%, Reliance Infra down 0.59%, Bharti Airtel down 0.40% and Tata Steel down 0.28%.

India's manufacturing sector has performed exceedingly well over the first three quarters of the current fiscal, putting behind the impact of the global financial crisis, and number of sectors registering high growth have increased substantially, showed a survey conducted by the industry body Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII).

As many as 50 of 127 sectors surveyed by the CII reported a growth rate of more than 20% in the April-December period of the current year compared with over the comparative period of the previous year. However, number of industries reporting growth of between 10-20% went down because they climbed up to the high growth category.

A total of 22 industries like utility vehicles, crude oil power transformers, energy meters, alcoholic beverages and textile machinery have logged in 10-20% growth, the survey said. There were 27 such industries last year but many of them have now moved up to the over-20% growth trajectory. This shows the substantial improvement that manufacturing sector has witnessed over the current fiscal so far.

The S&P CNX Nifty rose 27.25 points or 0.45% to 6,038.85. The index touched a high and a low of 6,045.75 and 6,012.60, respectively. 

The top gainers on the Nifty were Ambuja Cements up 2.38%, Dr Reddy up 1.85%, Sesa Goa up 1.50%, ICICI Bank up 1.46% and Suzlon up 1.46%.

The top losers on the index were SAIL down 1.62%, RCom down 1.59%, Sterlite Inds down 1%, Reliance Infra down 0.91% and BPCL down 0.53%.

Among other Asian peers, Shanghai Composite rose 0.32%, Jakarta Composite added 0.10%, Nikkei 225 increased 0.73%, Straits Times advanced 0.87% and Taiwan Weighted jumped 0.40% while KLSE Composite dipped 0.01% and Seoul Composite trimmed 0.02%.  

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