Markets show sign of recovery; pare most of the losses

The domestic markets have pared most of their losses, though are still trading in red. After the initial plunge the trade seems to have steadied in a 100 point range. The main boost to the markets has came from the oil & gas sector stocks, whether it be private sector Reliance Industries or the PSU oil marketing companies, all are trading with good gains. The RBI might have spooked the markets with its rate hike decision but its mention of rise in fuel prices have given a reason to the PSU OMC's to move higher, also the new oil secretary is going to meet the FM and is expected to ask for a fuel price hike. Though, the other rate sensitive sectors are not getting any respite and the Auto is once again trading as the laggard, while the realty too is down by over a percent. One non index gauge that is putting pressure on the markets is cement, with all the major companies declining by 3-5%, on the concerns of supply glut and margin pressure. The broader indices too are not looking in a good shape and while benchmarks are improving they are still down by around a percent.

The BSE Sensex was down by 49.14 points or 0.27% at 18,485.55. The index touched a high and a low of 18,558.33 and 18,339.53 respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.80% while the Small-cap index was down 0.70%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral front were Oil & Gas up by 1.76%, PSU up by 0.60%, CG up by 0.29%, FMCG up by 0.17% and Bankex was tad higher by 0.01%.

Auto down 1.76%, IT down by 1.46%, TECk down by 1.21%, Metal down by 1.16% and HC down by 1.11% were the major laggards in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 4.72%, HDFC Bank up by 1.26%, RIL up by 1.20%, HUL up by 1.19% and SBI was up by 1.16%.

On the flip side Bajaj Auto down by 3.84%, Hero Honda down by 3.01%, HDFC down by 2.55%, Reliance Infra down by 2.17% and M&M down by 2.08% were the major losers on the index.

Meanwhile, there is good news for infra sector, the Indian government will be awarding road projects covering 10,000 km of highways during the current financial year. A total investment of over Rs 50,000 crore will be required for completion of these projects. Further, most of these projects will be awarded through the build-operate-transfer (BOT) route.

The Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Dr. C P Joshi said that his ministry was also aiming at completion of 7300 Km of roads within the current fiscal as was decided by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on road development last month. Previous road minister Kamal Nath had set a target of building 20 Km of highways each day but so far the government has only been able to reach close to 10 Km a day.

Joshi said that in order to improve the pace of road projects the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been using advanced techniques. For instance, the GIS based satellites imagery is being used for planning and monitoring of national highways. The NHAI will implement a Pilot project of 1200 km covering Country's far flung areas as part of updating the existing GIS and web based Road Information System (RIS) which will be later extended to 7,000 Km within FY12 and to all major highways over time. 

Meanwhile, the NHAI authorities have said that over the last month it has awarded four projects worth Rs 5,527 crore on BOT basis. Bids were received for six and the rest two will be awarded soon too. The NHAI has been looking to pick up the pace of awarding road projects which has been the biggest factor in delaying completion of projects over the last few years.

Joshi said that his ministry has introduced annual pre-qualification of bidders in order to cut delays. What this means is that once a bidder is accepted as qualified, he can bid for projects throughout the year, without the need of qualification checks for other projects. The government is also working towards introducing a system of e-bidding to improve transparency and speed up the process of awarding projects while Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) is being envisaged to reduce costs of NHAI and improve toll collections.

The S&P CNX Nifty was down by 28 points or 0.50% at 5,537.25.The index touched high and low of 5,567.70 and 5,503.00, respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were BPCL up by 5.11%, ONGC up by 4.98%, Ranbaxy up by 1.85%, HDFC Bank up by 1.41% and HUL was up by 1.16%.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy's down by 5.07%, Ambuja Cements down by 4.74%, ACC down by 4.49%, Bajaj Auto down by 3.79% and Grasim down by 3.51% were the major losers on the index.

In other Asian block only Taiwan Weighted was in green, up by 1.27 pointsOn the other hand Shanghai Composite lost 2.23%, Hang Seng lost 1.48%, Jakarta Composite declined 0.60%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.59%, Straits Times slumped by 1.24% and Seoul Composite has lost 0.91%.Stock markets Japan remained shut on account of Japan's annual Golden Week holiday.

The European markets have once again made a soft start and the France's CAC 40 was down by 0.36%, Germany's DAX was lower by 0.19% and London's FTSE 100 was trading down by 0.77%.

 

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