The Indian equity markets have made a good start following their global counterparts, while the US markets closed higher overnight the Asian pack, barring the Shanghai Composite made a firm start with some of the indices trading higher by over one and half a percent. Back home the pre-budget rally that picked up pace in previous session seems to have got extended for yet another day with benchmarks moving towards their next psychological levels of Sensex-18700 and Nifty-5600. Buying has appeared across the board and all the sectoral indices are trading in green with broader indices going neck-in-neck to the benchmarks. The sluggish consolidation mood of the markets recovered with the second successive sharp decline in the food inflation. Also, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asserted that the "actual" food prices have come down substantially for the week ended February 5, expressing confidence it would come to single digit in some time. Food inflation has declined to a 2-month low of 11.05 per cent for the week ended February 5, from 13.07 per cent in the previous week. Investors are also taking cue of the government's effort to clean its image and pave way for the proper functioning of the parliament during the Budget session, with Prime minister reiterating to constitute a JPC in 2 G scam. Back on street, rate sensitive banking has taken the lead along with FMCG, CG and metal stocks.
The BSE Sensex opened at 18,564.08; about 57 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,506.82 and has touched a high and low of 18,654.22 and 18,564.08 respectively. The index is currently trading at 18,652.26, up by 145.44 points or 0.79%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.
The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 71.94% stocks advancing against 25.33% declines. The broader indices were also trading higher; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.96% and 0.80% respectively.
All BSE sectoral indices, were trading in green, Bankex up 1.30%,FMCG up 1.15%, CG up 1.12% , Metal up 0.99% and PSU up 0.94% were the main gainers in the BSE sectoral space.
The top gainers of the BSE Sensex were HDHC Bank up 2.16%, Hindalco Industries up 2.10%, BHEL up 2.08%, HDFC up 1.44% and DLF up 1.33%.
Bharti Airtel down 0.61%, M&M down 0.56%, TCS down 0.29%, Tata Motors 0.22% and Reliance Infra down 0.18% were top losers on the BSE Sensex.
Aventis pharma was marginally in red despite posting a good set of numbers for the December quarter. Aventis Pharma has reported a net profit of Rs 104.90 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 up by 303.46% as compared to Rs 26.00 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. Its net sales / income from operations has increased by 20.83% to Rs 286.50 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 from Rs 237.10 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2009. The scrip of the company were down by marginal 0.30 points or 0.02% to Rs 1889.30.
Meanwhile, amidst concerns raised by the commerce and industry ministry that liberal foreign direct regime in the pharma sector was leading to overtaking of Indian companies by global majors, the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) has opposed any move to rollback the FDI regime saying it would be a retrograde step.
The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) had earlier written a note to the finance ministry asking it to consider tightening the FDI regulations in the pharma space. Currently, 100% foreign investment is allowed in the pharmaceutical sector through the automatic route. The DIPP had however proposed that the FDI norms for the sector should be changed to route foreign investment through a suitable government agency like foreign investment promotion board (FIPB).
The reason behind the proposal by the commerce ministry was that multinational pharma giants were increasingly looking towards acquiring Indian drug players. Already some of the domestic heavyweights have sold their business fully or in part to multinational players. The trend however threatens to put the healthcare system in the country at mercy of foreign players and both commerce and health ministries have raised concerns about it.
The DIPP has pointed out two major negative impacts of the MNCs taking over the Indian companies. First, after the takeover, the multinationals will use the domestic unit as per their global plans and there would be little in it specifically for Indian needs. Secondly, the takeovers also have implications for affordability of healthcare as pricing of drugs might rise significant under the large foreign companies.
The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,557.55; about 11 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,546.45, and has touched a high and a low of 5,588.15 and 5,557.55 respectively. The index is currently trading at 5,587.90, up by only 41.45 points or 0.75%. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.
Meanwhile, according to the provisional data released by the NSE, the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers of Rs 1397.38 crore in futures and options segments on Thursday, February 17, 2011. FIIs were buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 571.45 crore also were buyers of index options worth Rs 462.63 crore. In the stocks segment, FII's were net buyers of stock futures worth Rs 342.14 crore and they bought stock options to the tune of Rs 21.16 crore.
The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up 2.99%, ACC up 2.81%, Ambuja Cements up 2.34%, HDFC Bank up 2.12%and BHEL up 1.94%.
The top losers of the index were Cairn down 1.135, HCLTech down 1.10%, Bharti Airtel down 1.02%, BPCL down 0.84% and M&M down 0.62%.
All other Asian markets barring Shanghai composite declined by 26.06 or 0.89% to 2,900.91, were trading in green. Straits Times up by 25.95 points or 0.84% to 3,108.78, Seoul Composite was up by 22.01 points or 1.11% to 1,999.23 and Hang Seng was up by 260.89 points or 1.12% to 23,562.73. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 was up by 14.24 points or 0.13% to 10.850.88, KLSE Composite was up by 8.57 points or 0.57% to 1517.13 and Jakarta Composite was up by 60.47 points or 1.76% to 3,434.15 and Taiwan Weighted up by 171.82 or 1.98% to 8,855.70.
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