Equity Markets regain their strength; bourses trade near their intra-day’s high

The Indian equity markets have regained its strength again after lull seen in previous four sessions, supported by the buying across the board. The local bourses after witnessing a massive sell off in the previous session followed by soft start in the morning session have managed to showcase a smart turnaround on the back of bargain buying of select stocks by funds and retail investors despite mixed global cues. As on the global front, Defensive shares led a overnight rebound in U.S. stocks on Thursday. However, the Asian stocks were trading mixed at this point of time since Japanese companies reported earnings that were hurt by the nation's worst earthquake amidst China bolstering measures to combat inflation.

Backhome, the Market could also be reacting to the Assembly elections' results so far Congress alliance was leading in 199 of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, while the ruling Left Front was leading in just 70. Further, surge of heavyweights such as ONGC, TCS, ITC, ICICI Bank, Wipro, Reliance Industries and Infosys mainly pushed the benchmark move higher. The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange--Sensex-- reclaiming its 18500 mark is currently trading near its intra-day high, while the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index gaining over 1% is currently trading above its key physiological level of 5500 mark. Both the broader indices are currently trading up over 0.50% each. Meanwhile on the BSE sectoral front, the stocks belonging to the Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Metal and bankex counters are the ones that are up with the notable gains. The overall market breadth on BSE was undisputedly in the favour of advances which have thrashed declines in the ratio of 1441:655, while 108 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,536.50, surged by 200.71 points or 1.09%. The index has touched a high and low of 18,569.92 and 18,280.70 respectively. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 decline on the index.

The broader indices too were performing in line with their larger peers; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.77% and 0.61% respectively. 

There were no losers on the BSE Sectoral front, however top gaining sectoral indices were, FMCG up by 1.69%, Metal up by 1.34%, Bankex up by 1.24%, Auto up by 1.09% and Capital Goods was up by 1.06%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.15%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.00%, DLF up by 1.85%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.81% and JP Associates up by 1.77%.On the flip side, Reliance Infra down by 0.17% was the sole losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India and Australia have signed an agreement to start free trade negotiations for the purpose of doubling bilateral trade within five years. The negotiations will primarily focus on broadening the base of merchandise trade and removing barriers to services trade. The two way trade between the two nations currently stands at $21 billion and they have committed to bring it to $42 billion. The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry -- Anand Sharma is in Canberra, Australia to discuss the issues related to foreign trade with his Australian counterpart -- Craig Emerson.

India is Australia's fourth largest export market as it is a heavy importer of gold, coal and copper, and the country will be pushing Australia for uranium sale during the negotiations. India is keen to buy uranium from Australia to help its expanding energy sector, though Australia has so far refused to sell the nuclear material to India demanding that India should first become a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Australia has the world's biggest known uranium reserves but supplies only 19% of the world market from three current mines, BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam, Energy Resources Australia's Ranger mine in the Northern Territory, and the Beverly mine, owned by the US.

India will also be raising the issue of safety of India Students in Australia as it is major destination for Indian students and education services to India are worth more than A$3 billion a year.

Recently India has struck bilateral free trade deals with Japan and Malaysia. It has already implemented free trade pacts with South Korea and ASEAN.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,541.85, up by 55.70 points or 1.02%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,558.25 and 5,472.15respectively.There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.85%, Siemens up by 2.14%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.10%, ITC up by 1.96% and ICICI Bank up by 1.92%.

BPCL down by 1.45%, HCL Technologies down by 0.43%, Reliance Infra down by 0.29%, Cipla Down by 0.15% and M&M down by 0.11% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading on a mixed note, Straits Times gained 0.21%, KLSE Composite added 0.37%, Jakarta Composite surged 0.31% and Shanghai Composite rose 0.06%.

On the flip side, Hang Seng shed 0.44%, Nikkei 225 plunged 1.24%, Seoul Composite declined 0.29% and Taiwan Weighted slid 0.36% 

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