Markets Close Positive, Bharti Airtel Top Gainer

The Indian markets closed marginally positive today, snapping up some of yesterday's losses. In the morning, the markets were bullish, and there was a 0.6% positive opening. In subsequent trades, they kept shedding points. The BSE Sensex closed with gains of 26 points at 17425, while Nifty closed with gains of 9 points at 5287.

From the Asian indices, the Hang Seng markets, which were shut yesterday, ended up by 1.49% today, which is mainly a lag effect of the ECB summit. Nikkei was also trading with 0.5% gains, while Shanghai was marginally up by 0.14%.

The European indices opened in the green zone today, and have continued to trade in positives. DAX has maintained 0.6% gains, while FTSE is up 0.33% and CAC is up 0.2%.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 11 points or 0.09% down at 12765.

Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated against all major currencies today. It now stands just under 55 against the dollar. Investors have turned bullish after the government published the draft GAAR rules and also promised that it would not be implemented with retrospective effect. Among other news, the Union Minister of Agriculture, Sharad Pawar said the rainfall will be satisfactory this year and thus, there is no reason to fear drought.

On the sectoral front, the CD index held its gains for entire day. By closing, it was up by nearly 3% and was the top gainer. The Realty and PSU indices were also up by 1.9% and 1% respectively. IT and FMCG maintained their negative run for the entire day and closed in the red. The Power index also turned into the red by closing.

Among the Sensex stocks, Bharti Airtel was the top gainer with 3.11% intraday gains. Hindalco was also up 2.27%. The shares of Coal India closed 1.96% up. Investors also made gains of over 1% each on HDFC, GAIL, Dr. Reddy's Labs, ONGC and Sterlite. On the other hand, BHEL is in the losers list yet again. Jindal Steel, TCS, ITC, HUL and Hero MotoCorp all lost over 1% by day's end.

As per media reports, Bharti Airtel has partnered with Hewlett-Packard to offer cloud-based email, accounting packages, business software and storage services to small and mid-sized businesses, a move to increase the revenue from data services in the face of declining voice-based income.

The shares of Mangalore Refinery saw a rise of 8.36% today. Sun TV, Essar Oil, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Idea Cellular and Titan Industries gained over 5%. However, Eicher Motors, Castrol India, Emami and Apollo Tyres lost more than 1% each.

Thomas Cook's stocks gained nearly 1% after the company reported to the exchange that it has expanded its operations to Bihar. Lupin shed over 1% despite receiving USFDA approval for Generic Ortho Tri-cyclen Lo tablets.

Overall, the market breadth remained positive. 59% shares on the BSE and 60% on the NSE advanced.

We believe that there is still some positive left in the market. The expectations of an interest rate cut in the next RBI meet will keep investors hopeful (though the possibility is quite remote as inflation remains high). At this time, investors should start buying specific stocks that we recommend in our magazine, Dalal Street Investment Journal.