Benchmarks continue their firm trade; Sensex above 18,200 level

Local equity markets have added more ground on the last trading day of the week or rather on the first trading day of the new Future & Option series as funds and retail investors engaged in enlarging their positions, taking cues from the firming trend on other Asian bourses. Stocks from Bankex, Realty and Oil & Gas counters are enticing maximum traction, thereby taking the bourses higher. However, the stocks from Auto and Consumer Durable space are only the laggards. On the global front, the U.S. stocks rose for a second day in a choppy session on Thursday with technology and consumer discretionary stocks leading the way after upbeat earnings. Meanwhile, barring Shanghai Composite all the Asian Indices were trading higher as Japanese stocks recouped all its losses gained post reporting data showing higher consumer prices. The US future Indices too were showing an uptick in the screen trade. Back home, the 30-shares index of the Bombay Stock Exchange -Sensex-shrugging off high inflation and rising interest rates fears has crawled higher over 150 points and is calmly trading above its 18,000 physiological level. In a similar fashion, the broad-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index is trading above 5,450 levels. The broader indices too are performing at par with their larger counterparts as both Smallcap and Midcap Indices are trading above 0.50% each. The overall market breadth is robustly in the favour of advances which have thumped declines in the ratio of 1465:681, while 86 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,209.14, up by 164.50 points or 0.91%. The index has touched a high and low of 18,224.18 and 18,087.16 respectively. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were going neck-in-neck to the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.96% and 0.76% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 1.38%, Realty was up by 1.28%, Oil & Gas up by 1.10%, Metal up by 1.04% and TECk up by 1.02%. While, Auto down by 0.80%, Consumer Durable down by 0.27% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Inds up by 3.80%, Mahindra &Mahindra up by 2.40%, JP Associate up by 2.39%, ICICI Bank 2.35% and Reliance Infra was up by 1.84%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 5.24%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.00%, Hero Honda down by 0.77%, Tata Steel down by 0.45% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.29% were the losers on the index.

Meanwhile, food inflation surged to the highest level in four weeks at 8.55% for the week ended May 14, as prices of fruits, cereals and protein-based items escalated. During the week ended May 14, cereals became costlier by 5.03% year-on-year and prices of onions were up by 8.32%. Moreover, prices of fruit rose by 32.37%, milk by 5.53% and eggs, meat and fish by 8.26%. Meanwhile, though the Index for 'non-food articles' group has declined marginally but the government and Reserve Bank had said that in the months to come, inflationary pressure would be more from core (non-food) items on account of high global prices of commodities, particularly crude.

According to the data released by the ministry of commerce and industry on Thursday, food price index rose 8.55% on annual basis during week-ended May 14, picking up pace from an annual rise of 7.47% recorded in the previous week. Food inflation was at 21.55% in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, the food prices index jumped by 0.6% to 186.7 from 185.5 during the previous week due to higher prices of poultry chicken (5%), jowar (4%), fish-marine (3%), mutton, barley and maize (2% each) and milk (1%). However, the prices of tea (5%), arhar and ragi (2% each) and masur and urad (1% each) declined.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,455.80, up by 43.45 points or 0.80%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,461.75 and 5,413.60 respectively. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.86%, RPower up by 3.09%, IDFC up by 2.64%, ICICI Bank up by 2.39% and JP Associate was up by 2.32%.

Tata Motors down by 5.37%, HUL down by 1.70%, PNB down by 1.57%, Hero Honda down by 1.29% and GAIL down by 1.27% were the major losers on the index.

Tata Motors's net profit for the year ended March 31, 2011 has dropped by 19.11% to Rs 1811.82 crore as compared to Rs 2240.08 crore for the year ended March 31, 2010. Its total income has increased by 28.78% to Rs 48223.72 crore for the year from Rs 37446.50 crore for the previous year.

On the consolidated basis, the Group's net profit for the year ended March 31, 2011 has zoomed by 260.69% at Rs 9273.62 crore as compared to Rs 2571.06 crore for the previous year. Its total income has increased by 30.65% from Rs 94312.37 crore a year ago to Rs 123222.91 crore for the year.

The company's board of directors at its meeting held on May 26, 2011 has recommended a dividend of Rs 20 per Ordinary share (200%) and Rs 20.50 per 'A' Ordinary share (205%) for FY 2010-11 this is as compared to a dividend of Rs 15 per ordinary Share and Rs 15.50 per 'A' Ordinary Share recommended for FY 2009-10

Meanwhile, also the company has approved sub-division of its share from Rs 10 per share to 5 shares of Rs 2 each that has mainly led the prices down.

All the Asian markets, barring Shanghai Composite all the other indices are trading in the green; Hang Seng gained 0.99%, Jakarta Composite inched higher by 0.21%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.49%, Nikkei 225 rose 0.04%, Seoul Composite gained 0.08 %, Straits Times surged 0.83% and Taiwan Weighted advanced by 0.39%.

On the flipside only Shanghai Composite was trading lower by 0.10%.

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