Sensex closes 1% up on banks support; ITC at record high

Indian shares gained momentum with the benchmarks rising 1 percent on Thursday, after seeing a consolidation along with somewhat profit booking since last Friday. The 50-share NSE Nifty, which was in a range of 5633-5725 in last five sessions, rose 58.45 points to close above 5700 level at 5,718.70, driven majorly by banking & financials and Tata pack.

Meanwhile, the 30-share BSE Sensex spiked 181.16 points to 18,791.93. Short covering may be another reason that boosted the markets.

Banking space hogged the limelight today with the BSE Bankex gaining 2 percent, which may be on expectations of rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India in its policy meeting that is scheduled for October 30.

But experts are divided on their opinion as some are not expecting any cut in policy rates due to high inflation while others say the central bank may cut repo rate by 25 basis points. Inflation for September stood at 7.81 percent, which is above the RBI's comfort level of 5-6 percent.

Jitendra Sriram, MD & Head of Research of HSBC India, however, feels the stressed assets continue to be an issue for banking space. "Corporate debt restructuring references have continued to be quite high," he adds.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India surged 2.8 percent while its rivals ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rose 1.4 percent. Bank of Baroda gained 4 percent while housing finance company HDFC went up 1.15 percent.

Other rate sensitives like realty and auto too participated in today's upmove. The BSE Realty Index gained 3 percent as DLF, HDIL, Indiabulls Real, Orbit Corporation and Unitech 2-10 percent.

Entire Tata pack too was quite active; commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors shot up 2 percent and power producer Tata Power gained 3 percent. Steel producer Tata Steel went up 1 percent.

Top software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services rose nearly 2 percent ahead of its second quarter numbers tomorrow. The company has been performing quite well, actually better than its peer Infosys and Wipro. Experts believe the outperformance will continue in the September quarter as well.

Cigarette major ITC closed at an all-time high of Rs 291.40, rising 1.32 percent ahead of its July-September quarter numbers tomorrow.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro, two-wheeler major Hero Motocorp and state-run coal mining company gained over 1.5 percent. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up 0.7 percent.

India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel fell 1.6 percent after telecom recommendations. Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body of Department of Telecom (DoT), Wednesday recommended existing operators surrendering the entire spectrum in 900 MHz band at the time of their licence renewal in 2014.

Drug producer Sun Pharma lost 1.7 percent and software services exporter Wipro tanked 2 percent.

The BSE Midcap Index was up 1.16 percent and Smallcap up 0.86 percent as advancing shares outnumbered declining by a ratio of 1678 to 1122 on the BSE.

Kingfisher Airlines tumbled 5 percent on fears of license cancellation. Yesterday Aviation Minister Ajit Singh says if Kingfisher fails to satisfy Directorate General of Civial Aviation (DGCA), it will recommend suspension.

On the global front, Asian markets too closed higher on strong US housing data. Shanghai gained 1.24 percent and Nikkei rallied 2 percent. Hang Seng and Straits Times were up 0.5 percent. But the European markets were in a consolidation mode after rising 2.5-3.8 percent in previous sessions.

The rise in banking & financials, auto, metals and Tata pack helped the BSE Sensex extend gains upto 178 points. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries and engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro were up 1-1.4 percent.

The 30-share BSE benchmark rallied 161 points to 18,771.56 and the 50-share NSE benchmark climbed 50.25 points to 5,710.50.

Public sector lender State Bank of India surged 2.6 percent while its rivals ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rose over 1 percent.

India's largest software services exporters Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys went up nearly 1 percent while Wipro declined 1 percent.

Tata group's stocks remained in bull grip. Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors jumped 2.3 percent and private power producer Tata Power spiked 3 percent.

Among metals stocks, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco Industries and Tata Steel gained 1 percent each.

Shares of Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel fell over 1.5 percent. Empowered group of ministers will meet at 3 pm today on spectrum refarming. Yesterday Telecom Commission released recommendations report on spectrum. The Department of Telecommunications has proposed full refarming of 900 MHz band for EGoM

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher with the BSE Sensex gaining more than 100 points, helped by Reliance Industries and State Bank of India. ICICI Bank, Larsen & Tourbo, HDFC Bank and HDFC too led the support.

The 30-share BSE benchmark was up 134.25 points to 18,745.02 and the 50-share NSE benchmark rose 42 points to 5,702.05. The broader markets too were trading higher with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.7-1 percent.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel trimmed losses to 0.5 percent from 2 percent. Yesterday Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body of Department of Telecom (DoT), recommended existing operators surrendering the entire spectrum in 900 MHz band at the time of their licence renewal in 2014.

Cigarette major ITC hit an all-time high of of Rs 290.80, rising nearly 1 percent ahead of second quarter results tomorrow. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries and engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro were up 1 percent each.

Public sector lender State Bank of India was up 2 percent while its rivals ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 1 percent each. Housing finance company HDFC too rose 1 percent.

Tata group stocks remained on buyers' radar. Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors rallied 2 percent and power producer Tata Power surged 2.8 percent. Software services exporter TCS and steel producer Tata Steel were up 0.6 percent.

Drug producer Sun Pharma lost 1.6 percent and IT services provider Wipro declined 0.9 percent.

Advancing shares outnumbered declining by a ratio of 1538 to 1087 on the BSE.

Indian equity benchmarks gained more than 0.6 percent, boosted by banking & financial, auto and FMCG stocks. The fall, however, in Bharti, Reliance and Infosys has limited the upside. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 121.82 points to 18,732.59 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 37.15 points at 5,697.40.

The Indian rupee trimmed losses from 21 paise to 6 paise to trade at 52.93 against the US dollar.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank gained 1 percent each. Shares of Bank of Baroda and Axis Bank rallied 2.7 percent while Punjab National Bank rose 1.7 percent.

Cigarette major ITC, engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro, utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra and top car maker Maruti Suzuki were up 1 percent each.

Among Tata pack, commercial vehicle major Tata Motors and power producer Tata Power surged 2 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. Software services exporter TCS gained 0.8 percent.

Housing finance company HDFC and state-run oil & gas producer ONGC moved up 0.5 percent each.

Drug producer Sun Pharma and telecom operator Bharti Airtel (after telecom commission recommendations) were down 1 percent each.

Indian shares were trading near day's high amid volatility as Asian markets remained positive following strong US housing data that suggest somewhat improvement in economic growth. Shanghai rose 1.1 percent and Nikkei rallied 2 percent while Hang Seng was up 0.8 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 148.45 points at 18,759.22 and the 50-share NSE Nifty moved up 46.45 points to 5,706.7.

Private power producer Tata Power topped the buying list with gains of 3 percent while shares of DLF, Bank of Baroda and Jaiprakash Associates jumped 2.5-3 percent.

Cement producers Ambuja Cements and ACC gained 1.5-2 percent ahead of September quarter results today. Mihir Jhaveri of Religare Capital Markets expects a profit growth of 142 percent for Ambuja on a YoY basis as last year they have low base and for ACC, they expect 100 percent growth as the company had a very bad quarter last year.

Country's largest lender State Bank of India went up 1.7 percent while its rival ICICI Bank gained 1.3 percent.

FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever were up nearly 1 percent. Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors rallied 1.8 percent and engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro was up 1.4 percent.

Top software services exporter TCS rose 1 percent while its rival Infosys moved up 0.5 percent.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and drug producer Sun Pharma fell 1 percent each.

In the second line shares, Anant Raj Industries, HMT, Hathway Cable, Tulip Telecom and DB Corp gained 3.5-6 percent while Tuni Textile, Responsive Industries, Fresenius Kabi, Edelweiss Financial and MTNL were down 1.6-4 percent.

Advancing shares outnumbered declining by a ratio of 837 to 515 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The 50-share NSE Nifty was consolidating around its previous closing value since early trade today. In fact, it has been moving in a tight range of 5600-5750 since hitting the 5800 level in the initial week of October and gaining over 9 percent since September, which suggest that the market may be priced in reforms announced recently by the government and stimulus packages by the US and Europe.

Now the market is waiting for the outcome of RBI policy that is scheduled for October 30. Some experts feel the central bank may cut policy rates by 25 basis points and some experts do expect any major action because the RBI's main focus is inflation, which is still above its comfort level of 5-6 percent. Inflation for the September came in at 7.81 percent as against 7.55 percent in August.

The BSE benchmark fell 14 points to 18,597.09 and the NSE benchmark went down 5 points to 5,655.05.

VK Sharma, HDFC Securities says the upside is almost capped at 5,750 in the current series. "My own sense is the market will look up after November 6. Till that point of time, largecaps will allow the midcaps to outperform them in a large manner," he adds. United States presidential election will be held on November 6, 2012.

Country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel plunged 2 percent after the Telecom Commission recommended mobile phone carriers give up all their airwave holding in the 900 mega hertz band at the time of their permit renewals. The move is opposed by the wireless industry which says it will cost about USD 24 billion more in capital outlay.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC were down 0.7 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. Software services exporters Infosys and Wipro fell 0.3-0.6 percent.

Shares of ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Dr Reddy's Labs, Hindalco and Hindustan Unilever gained 0.2-0.75 percent.

Private power producer Tata Power rallied over 2 percent while shares of Jindal Steel and Sun Pharma lost 1-1.5 percent.

The BSE Sensex gained more than 50 points in early trade following positive global cues, but could not sustain those gains due to weakness in Infosys, Bharti, Reliance and L&T.

The BSE benchmark rose 18 points to 18,629 and the NSE benchmark was up 5.6 points at 5,665.85.

Asian markets like Shanghai and Nikkei rallied 1-2 percent following strong US housing data, indicating some improvement in economic growth. Hang Seng and Straits Times were up 0.5 percent.

Back home, the Indian rupee fell below the 53 level, losing 21 paise to 53.08 against the US dollar.

Ambuja Cements and ACC gained 0.5-1 percent ahead of September quarter results today.

DLF, Tata Power, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Jaiprakash Associates, Hindalco, Cairn India, Lupin, Dr Reddy's Labs and Maruti gained.

Bharti Airtel, Infosys, L&T, Sun Pharma, Coal India and Jindal Steel were down in early trade.

The CNX Midcap Index went up 30 points to 7,892 as about two shares advanced for every share declining on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, Rallis India rallied over 2.5 percent on sharp jump in net profit of September quarter.

Kingfisher Airlines tanked 5 percent as Aviation Minister Ajit Singh yesterday says if Kingfisher fails to satisfy Directorate General of Civial Aviation (DGCA), it will recommend suspension of license.

UB Holdings too was down 2 percent following that news.

Dish TV rose 1.5 percent ahead of second quarter earnings today. The stock surged 5 percent yesterday.

Jain Irrigation bounced back with 2 percent gains. GIC Housing gained another 1 percent after results.

TV Today and Sun TV were up 1-3 percent. Eveready Industries was up 4.4 percent.

MphasiS lost 2.3 percent and Piramal Enterprises was down 0.4 percent after the National Stock Exchange decided to remove both stocks from F&O segment with effect from December 28.

Reliance Communications fell 1 percent on profit booking.

Unitech and IRB Infrastructure were up 1.5 percent.