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Markets came off their day's highs in late morning trades as investors booked profits at higher levels after the Sensex surged to an all-time high in early trades today.
At 11:45AM, the Sensex was up 29 points at 21,194 after hitting an all-time high of 21,293.88 and the Nifty was up 9 points at 6,308 after hitting an intra-day high of 6,332.60 so far. On January 10, 2008 the BSE Sensex had touched an intra-day high of 21,206.77.
The current Sensex rally, which has propelled the index to its all-time high, has been driven by liquidity rather than earnings growth. Foreign institutional investors have been aggresive buyers in Indian equities. Till Wednesday, FIIs were net buyers for the 18th straight day during the month of October. In calendar 2013, they have pumped more than Rs 86,000 crore in Indian stocks.
Since January 2008, defensive sectors such as pharma and FMCG along with IT majors and suport from Autos saw the Sensex touching a new all-time high.
Four stocks from 30-share S&P BSE Sensex – ITC, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and HDFC Bank - have collectively contributed nearly 4,500 points rise in benchmark index since January 2008.
Of the 10 stocks that saw a spectacular gain of over 100%, three stocks are from the pharmaceutical pack, three from the automobile sector and two each from the FMCG and IT space. Among individual stocks, Sun Pharma tops the list with a gain of 458%, followed by TCS (up 335%), Hero MotoCorp (up 211%) and ITC (up 203%).
Interestingly, the Mid-cap and Small-cap stocks have failed to participate in the rally during the period since January 2008.
The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices quoting at 6,150 and 5,935 levels respectively, are trading over 30% below their historic highs. The mid-cap index had touched a lifetime peak of 10,245.81 and the small cap touched an all-time high of 14,239.24 in January, 2008.
Meanwhile, the realty sector has been the worst hit. The realty sector had hit an all-time high in 2008 at a level of 13,848.09. With the sector currently trading at 1,365.46, it needs to rally nearly 900% before reaching its record high.
The rupee continued to remain weak against the US dollar and was trading at Rs 61.86 compared with the previous close of Rs 61.50.
Asian markets came off their day's lows and were trading mixed after manufacturing activity picked up in October led by China, after the world's second largest economy's factory output grew at its fastest pace in 18 months amid new orders. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were up 0.2-0.5% each. Nikkei was down over 1% while Straits Times was marginally down.
The BSE Realty Index lead the sectoral gainers on the BSE up 2.7% followed by Bankex, Metal, Auto, Power and Capital Goods among others.
In the financials segment, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and HDFC were up 0.3-4% each.
Auto shares firmed up on expectation of higher sales growth in October. Tata Motors, M&M, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto were up 0.3-2.3% each.
Other Sensex gainers include, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, Sesa Sterlite and L&T among others.
Among other shares, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals was down 3.7% at Rs 543 after the company witnessed a marginal decline of 1.6% in its net profit at Rs 154.2 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013, as compared to Rs 156.7 crore in the same period last year. However, its consolidated revenue has increased by 17% to Rs 1,463 crore during the period.
Shares of IDFC were up 6% at Rs 112 after the company announced higher net profit on a standalone basis for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013. Standalone Net profit for the second quarter was up 8% at Rs 498 crore compared with Rs 461 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 1% each.
Market breadth continued to reamin strong with 1,205 gainers and 761 losers on the BSE.
