Markets trade at high point of day; Nifty above 5,300 mark

The Indian equity markets are witnessing a sharp pull back and are trading at high point of the day in the late morning session. The market has strengthened by crossing the 5,300 mark on Nifty. But the advance is limited only to the Large-Cap shares, while Small-Cap and Mid-Cap counters are still trading weak. Food inflation has surged again and stood at 9.13% versus 8.96% (WoW) for week ended June 11, Primary articles inflation (WoW) has come in at 12.62% versus 12.86%, while fuel group remains unchanged at 12.84% (WoW). Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies' shares namely Reliance Communications and Reliance Infrastructure are showing good bounce back after facing a series of decline on BSE's decision of their exclusion from Sensex. On sectoral front FMCG, oil & gas, IT stocks were moving higher on sustained buying support while, consistent selling in healthcare and select capital goods stocks has limited the upside. Global markets too are recovering slowly as Asian markets are trying to move higher. Back home, market breadth continued to remain weak; there were 1,039 shares on the gaining side against 1,341 shares on the losing side while 127 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,702.55, up by 151.92 points or 0.87%. The index has touched a high and low of 17,707.63 and 17,482.21 respectively. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 declines and 1 remains unchanged on the index.

The broader indices are underperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 0.09% and 0.31% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.46%, Oil & gas up by 1.43%, IT up by 1.09%, TECk up by 0.96% and Auto up by 0.37%, while the only losers were HC down by 0.43% and CG down by 0.02%.

The top gainer on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.35%, RIL up by 2.03%, RCom up by 1.71%, Wipro up by 1.47% and JP Associate up by 1.46%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.69%, Cipla down by 1.35%, BHEL down by 0.86%, HDFC down by 0.16% and Hindalco down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Sonia Gandhi have approved the draft National Food Security Bill, 2011 on June 22, which aims to make provision of food support to people facing hunger a duty of the state. The draft bill was prepared by the Working Group on Food Security being legally vetted by a government law officer; the Council will now be sending it to the government for final approval. The decision approving the draft bill was taken at the meeting of the NAC held on June 22.

The draft food security bill ensured subsidized food grains to minimum 90% of rural households and 50% of urban households. As per the draft bill, 46% of the rural and 28% of the urban households categorized as 'Priority Group' are allowed to get food grains at 7 kg per person at Rs 3 wheat or Rs 2 rice or Rs 1 millets.  And 49% of the rural and 22% of urban households categorized as 'General Group' are entitled to get food grains at 4 kg per person not more than the 50% of the Minimum Support Price of the respective food grains.

The draft bill also creates a strong accountability framework for protection of these entitlements and allows imposition of fines on defaulters and compensation to the victim. The bill also visualizes a strong complaint redress and monitoring system, from center to the block level. 

The draft food security bill follows a life cycle approach and introduces a number of other universal guarantees, including nutrition support and maternity entitlements for pregnant women, nutrition support to children both in pre-school centers and in school, but also to all out of school children; destitute feeding and affordable meals for homeless and other needy urban populations and special guarantees for starvation and emergencies.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,315.25, up by 36.95 points or 0.70%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,317.35 and 5,252.25 respectively. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty are ITC up by 2.46%, Reliance Industries up by 2.13%, HUL up by 1.71%, Wipro up by 1.68% and Sterlite up by 1.65%.

On the other hand, Maruti down by 2.07%, Cipla down by 1.63%, Dr Reddy down by 1.09%, Ranbaxy down by 1.03% and Sesa Goa down by 0.97% were the top losers.

The Asian markets are still trading in mix, Hang Seng was down 0.86%, Jakarta Composite was down 0.13%, KLSE Composite was down 0.22%, Seoul Composite was down 0.27%, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.62% and Nikkei 225 was down by 0.18%.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was up 0.44%, and Straits Times was up by 0.10%.

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