Markets End Day 1% Higher

The Indian markets remained in the positives throughout the day, and finally closed higher by 1% each. Among the major sectoral gainers were Oil & Gas, Auto, Capital Goods and Bankex, which closed up by 3.03%, 1.74%, 1.38% and 1.37% respectively. FMCG, IT and Teck, though, moved to the negative zone, down by 0.37%, 0.12% and 0.09% respectively.

Earlier, all the Asian markets closed in the green. The Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai closed higher by 1.66%, 1.96% and 1.03% respectively. Positive global cues lifted the Asian markets today.

The European markets too have erased their morning losses and are now trading with decent gains. The major indices like FTSE, DAX and CAC are up in the range of 0.21%-0.53%. The European markets will continue to remain higher as investors are quite hopeful on the ECB's pledge to step in and fight the region's debt crisis.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 9 points or 0.07% up at 13064, indicating a positive sentiment. Better-than-expected US payrolls kept the sentiments positive in the markets there.

Back home, the Oil & Gas stocks gained heavily in today’s trade, taking the markets higher. Reliance Industries continued its golden run and closed higher by 5.71% on the back of news of improving gross refining margins of its Singapore unit in Jun 2012. Banking stocks like HDFC, HDFC Bank and SBI also ended with gains in the range of 0.63%-1.95%. Other major gainers include GAIL and Tata Motors, which ended higher by 2.49% and 3.51% respectively.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy Labs, TCS and Wipro closed negative, down by 0.86%, 0.69% and 0.59% respectively.

Cadila Healthcare closed with gains of 1.15% at Rs 907.20 after the company reported better-than-expected numbers for the Jun  quarter. The net profit of the company rose by 22% to Rs 266 crore on a YoY basis, and the net sales jumped by 30% YoY to Rs 1547 crore.

SKS Microfinance surged by 11% to Rs 100 today after the company reported lower net losses of Rs 38.84 crore for Q1 FY12 as compared to losses of  Rs 218.74 crore in Q1 FY11.

SAIL rose by 0.65% to Rs 85.30 after company announced its Jun 2012 quarter results. The core operating profit margin improved by 200 bps to 14.05% in Q1 FY12 as compared to the same period last year.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was positive for today. Out of the 3289 stocks traded on the BSE, 1902 advanced, 1264 declined and 123 remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain positive for tomorrow on the back of a positive global environment.