Thank God It's Friday: Sensex closes 513 pts up on oil news

Bulls took charge on Friday with Indian equity benchmarks making a strong comeback. Investors pilled on long positions in heavyweights after a sharp fall in crude oil prices yesterday.

The Sensex closed above the 18,000-mark for the first time in last seven sessions, which outperformed the global markets as well.

Likely fuel price revision, duty rejig and talks on under recoveries in the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meet (today at 7 pm) boosted the rally. Even the strong European cues on Greece news took the upside further in the second half of trade.

Today's rally is more respect to the oil correction, says Amisha Vora of Prabhudas Lilladher. "This is combination of the both - a bit of short covering and reasonable amount of FII figures," she added.

The benchmark Sensex rallied 513.19 points or 2.89% - strongest rally for the first time since March 1st, to close at 18,240.68, supported by buying across all sectors. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 151.25 points or 2.84%, to settle at 5,471.25. The The market managed to recover all its losses posted on Monday due to Indo-Mauritius DTAA treaty.

On the upside, Hemen Kapadia of chartpundit.com said the market was running into 5505 and 5562. "It has been a jack in the box completely surprised by the quantum."

The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is going to meet today at 7 pm, which was postponed from 1 pm. Oil ministry said detailed analysis of various scenarios submitted to EGoM and would discuss ways to tackle under recoveries.

State-owned oil firms are together projected to lose a whopping Rs 1,66,712 crore in revenues this fiscal on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government-controlled rates, which are way below the market price. The EGoM will deliberate on measures including an increase in the retail price, duty reduction and government subsidy, to tackle this loss.

Oil firms currently lose Rs 15.44 per litre on diesel, Rs 27.47 per litre on kerosene and Rs 381.14 on the sale of every 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder.

Oil marketing companies' shares like IOC and BPCL gained 3%. HPCL rallied over 6%. ONGC jumped 3% and GAIL was up 2.5%. Reliance Industries, which was red since the opening trade, ended flat.

Brent crude declined 6% yesterday as IEA surprised energy markets by saying 60 million barrels would be released over 30 days to fill Libya gap. Even the brokerages cut the forecast for crude oil prices. CLSA sees Brent at USD 80-90/barrel for 6 months.

All sectoral indices closed in the green. The BSE Realty, Metal, IT, Capital Goods, Bank, Auto, PSU and Power indices rallied 2-4%.

Largecaps like Hero Honda and SBI were the top gainers, with rising 6% each. Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Steel, HDFC, L&T and HCL Tech gained over 4%.

TCS, NTPC, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, ITC, BHEL, HDFC Bank, SAIL and JSPL surged 2-4%. However, only Reliance Infrastructure closed in the red.

International credit rating agency DBRS has upgraded India's long-term foreign and local currency debt rating outlook from negative to stable on account of fiscal consolidation and return to pre-crisis growth levels, backed by a robust policy framework, which too supported the market.

DBRS has assigned a 'BBB(low)' on India's long-term foreign currency and local currency debts. A 'BBB' signifies medium risk.

Volume was quite high today and after looking at futures & options data, it seemed that investors bet on long positions in heavyweights. Rate sensitives too participated quite strongly, on hopes that there could be pause in rate hike if the correction in oil prices continues further, which would pull the inflation lower from current level of around 9%. India is one of the biggest importers of oil.

Total traded turnover was more than Rs 2.13 lakh crore, including Rs 1.98 lakh crore from F&O segment. Market breadth was quite better - about 4.6 shares advanced for every one share declining.

On the global front, European markets too gained more than 1.5% after Greece agreed to austerity measures with European Union and International Monetary Fund. Asian markets like Shanghai, Hang Seng and Kospi went up 2% each. Dow Jones and Nasdaq futures rose half a percent.

(with inputs from PTI)

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Sensex rises 500 pts as investors bet on long positions

The benchmark Sensex rallied nearly 500 points in the afternoon trade, especially ahead of Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meet on fuel price revision.

Even the sharp fall in oil prices in international market and strong European cues on stability in Greece for the time being added more gains to the market.

About 46 stocks out of 50 on the Nifty were on buyers' radar. Reliance Industries, which was red since the opening trade, too started trading in the green with moderate gains. Financial, technology, infrastructure, FMCG and oil & gas companies' shares were leading the rally.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 18,224, up 497 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty jumped 146 points to 5,466. The Nifty June futures were trading with 10 points premium.

After looking at huge volume and even the options data, it seemed that not only short covering but long positions also were building up in heavyweights.

All sectoral indices were in the green, the BSE Realty, Metal, IT, Capital Goods, Bank, Auto, TECK, PSU and Power indices rallied 2-4%. Even broader indices too were on the same track - the BSE Midcap Index was up 2% and Smallcap up 1.8%.

Among largecaps, Hero Honda, SBI, Sesa Goa, Ambuja Cements, Jaiprakash Associates, NTPC and Hindalco were the top gainers, with rising 4-6%.

In the midcap space, SpiceJet shot up 17%. Godfrey Phillip was up 15% and Jet Airways up 13%. Sobha Developer surged 11% and Tecpro Systems rose 7%.

However, India Cements, Himadri Chemical, MVL, Redington and SKS Microfinance fell 1-4%.

On the global front, European markets were trading 1.5% higher. Athex Composite jumped 2% after Greece has agreed to austerity measures with EU and IMF. Dow Jones and NASDAQ futures too gained over 0.5%.

Sensex gains over 300 pts; European markets surge

Strong buying across sectors pulls the benchmarks near to the day's high. Banks, realty, metals, IT, auto and capital goods stocks surged.

The broader indices midcap and smallcap too were advanced 1.5% each. Oil marketing companies like HPCL, BPCL and IOC were on buyers' radar today ahead of EGoM meet at 7 pm.

TS Harihar, derivatives analyst at ICICI Securities says that the irrespective of what happens as an outcome of the EGoM, oil marketing companies (OMCs) appear to be in a sweet spot now.