The markets have opened on a firm note thanks to the receding event-specific riks. The decision by the Fed to inject fresh stimulus into the struggling US economy not only gave a leg-up to Wall Street in overnight trades, but also had a ripple effect on the bourses across Asia and India is no exception. The Sensex is quoting at 20637, higher by 171 points and the Nifty is at 6208, up 48 points. The midcap index is at 8578, higher by 46 points and the smallcap index is at 10851, up 43 points.
Wall Street ended a volatile session modestly higher overnight after the Federal Reserve announced a plan to buy $600 billion in treasuries to breathe new life into the struggling economy. The Dow was up 26 points at 11,215 and Nasdaq was up six points at 2,540. And Asian stock markets rose this morning as investors took heart from the Fed's plans; the key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan rose between 0.35% and 2.24% in early trades.
Meanwhile, Coal India had a terrific debut on the bourses. The IPO listed at a 25% premium to the issue price at Rs 304 compared to the issue price of Rs 245 a share, the top end of the Rs 225-245 price band (retail investors and employees got a discount of 5%). In the process, the coal major has became the fifth most valuable company in terms of market capitalisation. The public sector undertaking company with market capitalisation of Rs 196,438 crore is ranked fifth in a list led by Reliance Industries and followed by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and State Bank of India. The Navaranta firm has an equity capital of Rs 6,316.36 crore and face value per share is Rs 10.
The leading gainers on the BSE are HDFC (strengthened by 1.3% at Rs 725), TCS (jumped 1.3% at Rs 1066) and Cipla (added 1.1% at Rs 351). Hindalco, M&M and SBI are the other significnat gainers. And index heavyweight RIL has added 1.1% at Rs 1077.
Tata Motors is the sole loser on the Sensex. The auto major has edged lower by Rs 1 on the BSE.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 1123 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 859 advancing stocks as against 230 declines.
