Short covering, falling crude push Nifty above 5500

Indian equities benchmarks bounced back sharply on Wednesday morning on the back of short covering as shorts were built up yesterday amid weak global cues.

Recovery in global markets and especially in Japanese shares too led the support as it seems that sentimental effect due to massive 8.9 magnitude quake, tsunami and blasts in nuclear reactors eased for the time being. Even crude cooled off in international markets on the back of likely lower demand in devastated Japan - world's third largest economy. London Brent crude was trading at below USD 108 a barrel and Nymex crude was below USD 97 a barrel. Among frontliners, ONGC, IOC, Reliance Industries, Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, BPCL, Sterlite, Tata Steel, Jaiprakash Associates, M&M, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's Labs, Ranbaxy Labs, SBI, HDFC and ICICI Bank were supporting the markets. However, Hero Honda was the only loser on Nifty. At 9:17 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty rallied 54 points to 5,504 and the 30-share BSE Sensed gained 187 points at 18,355. The CNX Midcap went up 65 points to 7,598 and the Nifty Junior rose 99 points to 10,695. About 693 shares advanced as against 138 shares declined on National Stock Exchange. Midcap & Smallcap space: KRBL and LT Foods were up 5-6%. Ceat and Apollo Tyres went up 2-3%. Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways gained 1.5% despite increase in ATF prices. Tata Coffee was up 4% and Tata Global up 2%. Alok Industries, S Kumars, Nalco, Sudar Garments and VIP Industries rallied 2-4%. PTC India went up 2% as its arm PTC India Financial Services launched its IPO today. JM Financial gained 8%. Global markets recovered after brutal sell-off amid short covering although the situation remains grim. Asian markets were trading higher; Kospi, Straits Times, Taiwan and Shanghai were up 0.3-0.7% while Hang Seng fell 0.5%.  Nikkei 225 average recovered 5% today after suffering their biggest one-day fall on Tuesday since the Lehman shock in 2008. It had fallen nearly 17% since quake. Fire broke out for the second time at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. TEPCO officials say work is underway to extinguish the fire. Report says that about 70% of the nuclear fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor have been damaged, along with 33% of the rods at the No. 2 reactor. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch further cut its forecasts for Japanese GDP _PAGEBREAK_ The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 138 points at 11,855, after seeing recovery of 159 points from day's low of 11,696. The Nasdaq Composite was down 34 points at 2,667, after seeing recovery of 49 points from day's low of 2,618. The S&P 500 Index fell 14.5 points at 1,282, after recovery of 21 points from day's low of 1261. Commodities CRB Commodity Index went down 3.6%, worst single-session loss since November CRB Commodity Index closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time since August Crude oil dropped 4% at USD 97.18/barrel Natural gas was up 0.7% at USD 3.94 per MMBtu Gold fell 2.2% at USD 1392.9/ounce Silver declined 4.8% at USD 34.11/ounce F&O cues: Total Futures Open Int down Rs 286 crore, Total Options Open Int down Rs 633 crore Total stock futures Open Int shed 70 lakh shares in Open Int Nifty futures Open Int add 11.4 lakh shares in Open Int, discount at 2 pts Vs premium of 22 pts Nifty Open Int PCR down at 1.30 versus 1.34 Total Put shed 19.5 lakh shares, call add 4.8 lakh shares Highest Open Int outstanding at 5400 put, 5300 put, 5200 put, 5500 call (from 5700 call) Nifty 5400 put shed 12.2 lakh (11%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5500 put shed 10.3 lakh (18%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5800 call shed 4.2 lakh (8%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5300 put shed 3.4 lakh (4%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5200 put shed 3 lakh (4%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5500 call add 3.3 lakh (5%) shares in Open Int Nifty April 5400 put add 2.6 lakh (26%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5700 call add 2.06 lakh (3%) shares in Open Int India VIX up 14.3% at 26.63