Market remains firm

The market remained firm in mid-morning trade. It had edged lower at the onset of the trading session tracking subdued-to-weak trend in Asian markets before bouncing back shortly. Power and metals stocks rose. Capital goods stocks rose on reports Finance Minister P Chidambaram met representatives from auto and capital goods industries to discuss industrial slowdown after recent weak Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers.

HDFC and Bharat Heavy Electricals were major gainers from Sensex pack. The market breadth was strong. Except auto, realty and FMCG indices rest all sectoral indices on BSE were in green.

At 11:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 78.53 points or 0.5% at 15,67.43. At the day’s high of 15,683.98, Sensex gained 96.36 points in early morning trade. At the day’s low of 15,464.72 Sensex lost 122.9 points in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was up 10.35 points or 0.22% at 4,720.

The market breadth was strong: on BSE 1543 shares advanced as compared to 629 that declined. 55 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index up 1.3% to Rs 6,465.73 and BSE Small-Cap index up 1.25% to 7,911.79.

Capital goods stocks rose. Larsen & Toubro (up 1.93% to Rs 2,632.15), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 1.57% to Rs 1,739.60) and Suzlon Energy (up 1.09% to Rs 292.90) edged higher. As per reports, the finance ministry is looking at various measures to provide a boost to the capital goods sector, which witnessed a sharp slowdown in growth earlier this year. Finance Minister P Chidambaram today held a meeting with chief executives of several leading public sector and private companies in the sector including the likes of NPTC, Bhel, BEML and L&T among others. In January this year, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers showed a significant slowdown in the capital goods sector, with growth in the sector falling sharply from over 16% in December 2007, to just 2.1% in January 2008.

Power stocks rose. Reliance Power (up 2.46% to Rs 360), Reliance Energy (up 1.66% to Rs 1,169.50), NTPC (up 0.24% to Rs 96.50), Tata Power Company (up 1.72% to Rs 1,153.50) edged higher. The Finance Ministry has cleared a restructured Rs 50,000-crore accelerated power development and reforms programme (APDRP), which would soon be sent to the cabinet for approval.

Metal stocks rose. Bhushan Steel (up 2.41% to Rs 674.95), Tata Steel (up 2.32% to Rs 671.05), National Aluminium Company (up 0.97% to Rs 436.65), Hindalco Industries (up 0.59% to Rs 171.30) edged higher.

India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 0.45% to Rs 2,392.

Grasim Industries (down 1.38% to Rs 2,525), Satyam Computer Services (down 1.21% to Rs 423.90), Maruti Suzuki India (down 2.24% to Rs 727.05), ITC (down 1.27% to Rs 205.65), ONGC ( down 0.82% to Rs 1,002.60) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

HDFC (up 3% to Rs 2,378.70), Infosys (up 1.35% to Rs 1,481.80), DLF (up 0.97% to Rs 621.80), Cipla (up 0.56% to Rs 213.50) and ICICI Bank (up 0.58% to Rs 818) edged higher from Sensex pack.

India’s largest commercial bank State Bank of India rose 0.5% to Rs 1,684.90. It has reportedly shortlisted three potential partners, including Insurance Australia Group, for a general insurance venture. The other two shortlisted partners are a German firm and a US-based firm, the reports suggested.