Benchmarks trade firm on the back of strong global cues

The Indian equity markets have made positive starts tracking strong cues from global indices as the US markets made a hat-trick of gains with indices gaining for the third straight session overnight while, all the Asian equity indices barring KLSE Composite were trading in the green at this point of time. Sustained buying by foreign investors too supported the sentiments. Back home, sustained buying in most of the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE's -- Sensex -- to cross its crucial 18,700 mark. Investors covering their short positions on the last day of June month settlement in the derivatives segment further fuelled the uptrend. Fast moving consumer goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and consumer durables while, oil and gas remained the lone losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were going neck to neck with benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,081 shares on the gaining side against 540 shares on the losing side while 78 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,741.10; about 48 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,693.86, and has touched a high of 18,823.06 while low remained its opening.

The index is currently trading at 18,764.69, up by 70.83 points or 0.38%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 63.63% stocks advancing against 31.78% declines. The broader indices were trading in line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices rose 0.27% and 0.40% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 1.01%, Realty up by 0.78%, CD up by 0.77%, Metal up by 0.44% and CG was up by 0.38%. While, Oil and Gas down by 0.03% remained the lone losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HUL up by 1.81%, Reliance Infra up by 1.12%, SBI up by 1.11%, ITC up by 1.08% and Tata Steel was up by 0.96%. On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.24%, Tata Motors was down by 0.78%, NTPC was down by 0.59%, Bharti Airtel was down by 0.52% and Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.30% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the crude output from Indian refineries has increased by 4.5 percent as compared to the output during May last year. This rise is due to increased crude processing by PSUs whose output rose on an annual 8.7 percent in May when global refining margins improved and Indian fuel demand rose by an annual 5 percent. 1.44 million tonnes or 3.40 million barrels per day (bpd) oil was processed by domestic refiners during May. Throughput of private refineries was down 4.4 percent from a year ago. However, any specific reason for the lower crude processing by private refiners was not cited by government.  Also, crude processing by 120,000 bpd Bina refinery in central India, which came on-stream earlier this year, has not so far been included in the data.

Reliance Industries' two refineries at Jamnagar, which account for about a third of India's refining capacity, output fell on an annual 5.7 percent and of Essar Oil's Vadinar refinery's output declined by 1.2 percent during May as compared to corresponding month last year.

The decline of output from private refineries and low production from the country's biggest producer Mumbai High fields as a scheduled shutdown spilled over to May slowing the pace of growth from April; which was 11 percent and decreased to 9.6 percent during May to 763,500 bpd.

India, the world's fourth-biggest crude importer, produces only a fraction of its overall needs. However, government is constantly trying to increase the production by allowing government-run and private companies to explore the Indian waters. Government encouraged private companies in this sector through introduction of New Exploration Licensing Policy in 1999, as it is believed that India is amongst the least explored countries in world (only 60 percent is being explored).

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,614.50; about 14 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,600.45, and has touched a high and a low of 5,637.45 and 5,613.20 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,622.70, higher by 22.25 points or 0.40%. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HUL up by 1.77%, SAIL up by 1.36%, Reliance Infra up by 1.18%, SBI up by 1.16% and Tata Steel up by 0.98%.

On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.57%, ONGC down by 1.47%, Tata Motors down by 0.92%, Sesa Goa down by 0.78% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.67%, were the top losers on the index 

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