Sensex jumps over 300 points on diesel price hike, QE3

Indian markets rallied to 6 month high in early trade on Friday led by Oil & Gas space after the government hiked in diesel price and US Fed"s announcement of QE3.

The losses of oil marketing companies will be reduced byRs 150 billiondue tohike in diesel price by Rs 5 a litre. The government has also announced restriction on supply of subsidized LPG cylinders to 6 in a year, which will help OMCs to cut under-recoveries by Rs 53 billion. However, the government has retained kerosene and petrol prices.

The US Federal Reserve announced third around of quantitative easing on Thursday to support the recovery in the world"s largest economy. As a part of quantitative easing, the Fed has decided to increase policy accommodation by purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of USD 40 billion per month over the next year.

The 30-share benchmark index, BSE Sensex opened with a gain of 263.59 points or 1.46% at 18,284.75, while the broad based NSE Nifty started with a rise of 93.00 points or 1.71%, at 5,528.35.

At 9.30 am, the Sensex was trading up 323.22 points or 1.79% at 18,344.38 with 30 components gaining. Meanwhile, the Nifty was trading higher by 97.75 points or 1.80% at 5,533.10 with 50 components gaining.

Sensex Movers

I C I C I Bank contributed rise of 52.36 points in the Sensex. It was followed by Infosys (30.36 points), Reliance Industries (28.25 points), State Bank Of India (23.59 points) and Tata Motors (21.73 points).

However, Bharti Airtel contributed fall of 0.89 points in the Sensex. It was followed by ACC (1.09 points), Reliance Communications (1.29 points), Grasim Industries (1.42 points) and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (1.55 points).

All shares in the Sensex settled with a positive note. Biggest were Hindalco Industries (5.08%), Tata Steel (4.87%), G A I L (India) (4.47%), Jindal Steel & Power (4.08%), I C I C I Bank (3.96%), and Tata Motors (3.82%).

Mid & Small-cap Space

The BSE Mid and small caps underperformed their larger counterparts gaining 1.06% and 0.90% respectively.The major gainers in the BSE Midcap were A B G Shipyard (2.16%), Aban Offshore (1.86%), Alstom India (1.32%), Alok Industries (0.91%) and CORE Education and Technologies (0.25%).The major gainers in the BSE Smallcap were Reliance MediaWorks (2.29%), A2Z Maintenance & Engineering Services (1.77%), Adhunik Metaliks (1.24%), Action Construction Equipment (0.76%) and Aanjaneya Lifecare (0.5%).

Sectors in Limelight

The Metal index was at 10,236.62, up by 289.04 points or by 2.91%. The major gainers were Hindalco Industries (5.08%), Jindal Steel & Power (4.08%), Hindustan Zinc (1.99%), Coal India (0.86%) and Bhushan Steel (0.42%).

The Bankex index was at 12,014.51, up by 310.81 points or by 2.66%. The major gainers were Bank Of Baroda(2.69%), Bank Of India (2.32%), Canara Bank (1.93%), Federal Bank (1.3%) and H D F C Bank (0.79%).

The Realty index was at 1,596.78, up by 38.18 points or by 2.45%. The major gainers were D L F (3.64%), D B Realty (2.27%), Godrej Properties (1.91%), Indiabulls Real Estate (1.85%) and Anant Raj Industries (0.9%).

The Auto index was at 9,867.14, up by 201.08 points or by 2.08%. The major gainers were Bajaj Auto (2.17%), Bharat Forge (1.28%), Exide Industries (1.22%), Ashok Leyland (1.18%) and Hero Motocorp (0.9%).

Market Breadth

Market breadth was positive with 1,076 advances against 255 declines.

Value and Volume Toppers

Godrej Consumer Products topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs. 1,114.64 million. It was followed by State Bank Of India (Rs. 291.86 million), I C I C I Bank (Rs. 264.24 million) and Tata Steel (Rs. 147.30 million).

The volume chart was led by Kingfisher Airlines with trades of over 3.99 million shares. It was followed by Spicejet (2.78 million), Godrej Consumer Products (1.67 million) and TV18 Broadcast (0.43 million).