Indian markets started off the week with all the benchmark indices rising by more than a percent point mainly due to the rise in banks, power and PSU oil & gas stocks. Sentiments remained up-beat since start as key bourses opened
with decent gains and there appeared not even an iota of profit booking in the session as the benchmarks managed to fervently gain from strength to strength as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong stocks. Frontline indices not only ended the session near intraday high levels but also recaptured their crucial 7,600 (Nifty) and 25,400 (Sensex) bastions as investors took to hefty across the board buying.
Global stocks surged for their fourth straight quarter, as investors were expecting that a raft of U.S. and European economic data due this week will soothe recent worries over the pace of growth. European markets trade mostly in the green in early deals despite data showing that retail sales in Germany slowed unexpectedly in May to 1.9% over the last year and below expectations calling for a gain of 2.1%. Asian markets showed mixed performance with SSE Composite and Nikkei 225 ending in green while Hang Seng and Straits Times ending in red.
Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. Meanwhile, rally in shares of state-owned banks too supported the sentiments after the government decided to create a holding company structure for public sector banks before the Budget. Shares of public oil marketing companies, namely BPCL, HPCL and IOC too remained on buyers’ radar on lower Brent crude prices. Globally, Brent futures dipped towards $113 a barrel on Monday, adding to last week's fall as fears of a disruption to supplies from Iraq eased after government forces launched a pushback against a Sunni militant takeover of large areas of the country. Moreover, steel stocks too edged higher on report that Eastern region is set to push India's steel capacity with an investment of nearly Rs 9 lakh crore for creating an additional 160 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity in the next 10-15 years. Shares of state-run oil and gas companies rallied 1-5 percent on hopes of new subsidy sharing mechanism. “Oil ministry is keen on fixed realisation of USD 60-65 a barrel for ONGC and Oil India, and is also keen to link production with fixed higher realisations, say sources. ONGC was up 3 percent and Oil India advanced 1.7 percent.
The fall in crude oil prices too drove these stocks higher. Brent crude fell below USD 113 a barrel today on easing of supply disruption fears from Iraq. BPCL, HPCL and IOC rallied 4-5 percent.
Sensex gained 313.86 points to settle at 25,413.78. The index touched a high and a low of 25,460.96 and 25,179.55 respectively. Among the 30-share Sensex, 24 stocks gained, while 6 declined. BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices
ended higher by 1.89% and 1.80% respectively.
On the BSE sectoral front, Power up by 2.88%, PSU up by 2.62%, Capital goods up by 2.18%, Healthcare up by 1.80% and Bankex up by 1.71% were the top gainers with no sectoral index in red, Top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.87%, Tata Power up by 3.81%, ONGC up by 3.08%, ICICI
Bank up by 2.43% and Dr. Reddy’s up by 2.43%. On the flip side, the key losers were Bajaj Auto down by 1.02%, M&M down by 0.52%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.47%, Tata Motors down by 0.25% and Wipro down by 0.16%. European markets remained flat with; UK’s FTSE 100 up by 0.04%, Germany’s DAX up by 0.28% and France’s CAC 40 down by 0.22%.
TECHNICAL PARAMETERS OF NIFTY
Today, RSI was at 62, MACD Positive below Signal line; India VIX was at 18~. Nifty closed above its immediate short term moving averages of 5 DMA (7553), its 20 DMA (7552), 50 DMA (7227) & 200 DMA (6471) which all indicate that market may face resistance at higher levels, but overall trend remains positive in the medium to long term.
