Nifty closes week above 6000; oil & gas lead from front

The NSE 50-share Nifty closed the week above the 6000-mark and the Sensex rose 1.8 percent to close the week at 19767, as oil companies such as ONGC rose on hopes a proposed change in the government's pricing formulas would boost gas prices, while IT stocks rose on expectations for a better 2013.

For the day, the BSE index provisionally gained 0.02 percent, while the 50-share NSE index ended up 0.11 percent, both marking their highest closes since January 2011.

Motilal Oswal said Oil India, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, and Reliance Industries would be the biggest beneficiaries of the proposed formula, which involves volume-weighted international prices for gas producers.

Indian Oil Corp closed up 5.9 percent, Hindustan Petroleum Corp gained 4 percent, while Bharat Petroleum Corp closed up 3.2 percent.

The shares of gold loan firms such as Manappuram Finance and Muthoot Finance countined to surge after the Reserve Bank of India proposed increasing the loan-to-value or LTV ratio to 75 per cent from 60 per cent currently.

Earlier in the day, market came under a bit of selling pressure tracking overnight weakness in global equities after senior Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative bond buying, but the dollar extended gains as US debt yields rose.

Meanwhile, gold importers in India, the world's biggest buyer of the metal, took advantage of a near 1 percent fall in prices on Friday to stock up amid continued talk of an import duty hike.

The actively traded gold for February delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was 0.80 percent lower at Rs 30,698 per 10 grams at 3:14 p.m.

 Markets This Week

• Sensex up1.8%
• CNX Midcap Index 3.3%
• BSE Small Cap Index up 3.7%;
• Nifty Junior up 2.8%
• Bank Nifty up 2.7%,
• CNX Realty up 5.4%,
• BSE Oil & Gas up 4.1%
• BSE Cons Durables up 3.5%,
• BSE Power up 2.7%
• BSE Metals up 2.3%,
• BSE Auto up 2%,
• CNX IT up 1.8%
• BSE Cap Goods up 1.8%,
• BSE FMCG up 0.8%

The 50-share NSE benchmark was hovering around the 6000 mark, with midcap banks witnessing intra-day recovery. While oil and gas space remains the biggest sectoral gainer, metal continues to trade with a big cut. Broader markets are showing a lot of momentum in the last hour of trade.

At 2 PM, the Sensex was down 20.11 points or 0.10% at 19744.67, and the Nifty trading 8.35 points or 0.14% lower at 6001.15. Midcap index was up over 3%.

Top gainers on the BSE midcap include Purvankara Project (gain 9.39 percent), IFCI (8.91 percent), Mannapuram Finance (6.4 percent), Dewan Housing (8.9 percent), ING Vysay ( 6.34 percent) and Karnataka Bank (6.4 percent).

Among banking stocks, SBI (up 0.32 percent), ICICI Bank (0.85 percent), and PNB (0.78 percent) have begun moving up. A recent statement by SBI that it would not cut interest rates before the January 29 monetary policy may dent sentiments. Analysts say SBI's asset quality continues to be a concern.

Meanwhile, Jet Airways continued moving up as the deal with Etihad get closer. The stock was up 3.4 percent. However, Kingfisher which was also looking for a deal, has not found any investor. The stock was down over 2 percent.

DLF recouped some of its morning losses to trade with a cut of 0.75 percent. It had plunged after Competition Commission of India (CCI) purged abusive and unfair conditions from DLF-buyer agreement. Real estate stocks which have found buyers include Oberoi Realty (1.93 percent) Pantaloon ( 1.10 percent), HDIL (1.46 percent) and Shoppers' Stop ( 0.11 percent. Telecom and IT stocks too have remained in the green.

Equity benchmarks did not make much headway as profit booking intensified. Markets remained lackluster till mid afternoon. At 12.33 PM, the Sensex was down 58.82 points or 0.30% at 19705.96, and the Nifty fell 21.10 points or 0.35% to 5988.40.

Top losers in the nifty were the metal stocks like Jindal Steel, Sesa Goa, Hindalco and Tata Steel. These were trading with 2.5 percent, 2.45 percent, 2.42 percent and 1.99 percent loss.

Oil marketing companies remained in the limelight as IOC, BPCL, HPCL rallied between 2.5 percent and 6 percent on talks of diesel price hike. ONGC rallied 2.43 percent on the news that gas can be diverted to power companies.

IT sector also maintained its upmove since yesterday. TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech were trading with 0.84 percent, 0.22 percent, 1.41 percent and 1.45 percent gains.

Indian stocks continued to witness profit-booking amidst negative cues from Asian markets which slipped after the FOMC indicated that the Fed might scale back its QE operations in months to come. However, the dollar extended gains as US debt yields rose.

At 10.52 AM, the 30-share BSE index was down 49.41 points or 0.25 percent at 19715.37, and the Nifty was lower by 16.20 points or 0.27 percent at 5993.30.

However, state-owned oil companies saw a big upmove on expectations of a diesel prices hike.   Reuters says that a government official last month was quoted in local media reports as saying the petroleum ministry has proposed a gradual rise in diesel prices, by 1 rupee a litre every month over a 10-month period. IOC rose a whopping 6 percent to trade at Rs 286.20 per share, while HPCL was up 4.5 percent, and BPCL was trading with 2.5 percent gains. ONGC appreciated 2.16% to be the top gainer on the Sensex. GAIL, Reliance and Cairn were up 0.54 percent, 0.05 percent and 0.24 percent respectively. Sensex had seen its best closing level in two years yesterday led by telecom and oil & gas stocks.

Other gainers on Sensex included Wipro (up 1.72 percent), BHEL (1.24 percent), TCS (1.18 percent) and Cipla (0.54 percent).

Key benchmarks were down in early trade due to profit booking following gains in previous two consecutive sessions and the Nifty hitting an important psychological 6000 mark after two years.

Global markets too were witnessing profit taking after rallying due to voting in favour of US fiscal cliff deal. Euro, Brent crude and gold too were down.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 23 points to 19,741.68. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty was struggling at 6000 level, down 11.30 points to 5998.20.

The Indian rupee too was under pressure, slipping towards 55 level, down by 32 paise to 54.82 against US dollar.

Financials, auto and metals were under pressure whereas gains in oil & gas and technology limited the fall.

Tata Power, one of the largest power companies in private sector in India, fell over 1 percent as the company stopped power supply to three Rajasthan distributions companies.

Realty major DLF was down 1.5 percent after the Competition Commission of India modified apartment buyer's agreement in company's case.

Manappuram Finance gained another 10 percent following yesterday's 20 percent rally after the Reserve Bank of India released draft report on gold and gold financing NBFC yesterday. Muthoot Finance rose 3.6 percent.

Jet Airways moved up another 2 percent on hopes of deal with Etihad.

Suzlon, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, South Indian Bank were up over 1 percent.

Hindustan Dorr-Oliver rallied 5 percent as the company has received two orders worth Rs 277 crore from GSFC.