Pre-Diwali fireworks on street; Sensex, Nifty hit 17-month highs

The key benchmark indices surged for the second day in a row as a rally in global stocks, strong response to the initial public offer of Indiabulls Power, stronger-than expected Q2 results from housing finance major HDFC and healthy Q2 outcome from HDFC Bank, boosted market sentiment. The barometer index BSE Sensex and the 50-unit S&P CNX Nifty today, 14 October 2009, hit their highest closing levels in nearly 17 months.

The Sensex jumped 204.40 points or 1.2%, off close to 40 points from the day's high and up close to 120 points from the day's low. A rally in US index futures triggered by a strong guidance from chip major Intel, aided the rally on the domestic bourses. The market breadth was strong.

As per provisional data, foreign funds today, 14 October 2009, mopped up stocks worth a net Rs 1468.82 crore. Domestic funds sold shares worth a net Rs 196.91 crore

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) edged higher in choppy trade. Oil exploration stocks gained whereas PSU OMCs fell as crude hit its highest level in 2009 on weak dollar. Metal and sugar stocks gained. India's largest engineering and construction firm by sales Larsen & Toubro rose on winning a large order. Other capital goods stocks also rose. But telecom stocks fell.

After a firm opening, the market surged in early trade on firm Asian stocks. The market was ranged bound in mid-morning trade. The market extended gains in early afternoon trade with the Sensex hitting a fresh intraday high. It came off the higher level later before regaining strength. The market pared gains after hitting a fresh intraday high in late trade.

Minister of State for Agriculture KV Thomas on Wednesday said there is no need to import foodgrains as the country has adequate stocks.

Industrial production (IIP) rose a robust 10.4% in August 2009, government data showed on Monday. It is the fastest pace of growth in 22 months. Manufacturing output rose 10.2%. The government revised upwards industrial production growth for July 2009 to 7.2% from an earlier estimated 6.8%.

Arvind Virmani, chief economic adviser at the Finance Ministry, on Tuesday said the economy can expand 7% in 2009/10, and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must weigh the trade-off between growth and inflation when it reviews policy settings later this month. The forecast for the fiscal year ending March is higher than 6% estimated by the RBI and private analysts, and the 6.3% predicted by government's Planning Commission.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Monday industrial growth is set to improve in the second half of the 2009/10 fiscal year. Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla said he expects trend in industrial production to continue and expects better numbers in September 2009. Abhijit Sen, a member of the government's Planning Commission said industrial output will not slow down in coming months. He, however, said farm output is expected to be lower by 2.5% in 2009/10 from the previous year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday that the worst is over for the Indian economy, and measures to control the sharp rise in food prices are taking effect. Singh, also said he was confident the harvest will be normal, despite the weakest monsoon since 1972 that has ravaged rice and sugarcane fields. Singh had said earlier the Indian economy is likely to grow at 6.3 to 6.5 % in the fiscal year to March 2010, or a seven-year low. He said economic stimulus measures will continue since the economy is not operating at full capacity.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Tuesday Indian exporters still face weak demand from Europe and the United States, so they are setting their sights on new markets. Many domestic sectors are experiencing double-digit growth despite the drop-off in exports, he said.

C. Rangarajan, chairman of the prime minister's Economic Advisory Council, today, 14 October 2009, said the Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to revise benchmark interest rates when it reviews monetary policy later this month. RBI holds its quarterly policy review on 27 October 2009. He said the economy would grow 6-6.5% with an upward bias in the year to March 31, 2010. Rangarajan forecast inflation to touch 5-6% by then.

He said that the Reserve Bank of India can continue with its present easy monetary stance as long as inflationary pressures are moderate. He also said the central bank would first have to stop injecting liquidity, and then consider draining off excess cash.

Meanwhile, the IPO of Indiabulls Power was subscribed 8.66 times at 16:00 IST on second day of the issue on Tuesday. Indiabulls Power, a unit of Mumbai-based developer Indiabulls Real Estate, is developing five thermal power plants in western and central India, with total capacity of 6,600 megawatts, and will use the issue proceeds to fund two projects. The issue closes on Thursday, 15 October 2009.

The company has allotted 6.11 crore shares to anchor investors at Rs 45 per shares, at the top end of the Rs 40 to Rs 45 price band for the IPO.

Stock and sector-specific activity may dominate trade in the coming days based on expectations on Q2 September 2009 results. Auto firms are seen reporting strong Q2 results on strong volume growth and on lower input costs. Lower interest rates and pay hike for government employees has boosted auto sales this year after last year's slowdown in demand. Government employees have started receiving the balance 60% of their wage arrears as per the recommendations of the VIth Pay Commission.

Cement firms too are seen reporting good Q2 numbers on the back of volume growth, higher realisation and decline in costs like imported coal. Metal firms are seen reporting fall in net profit due to a sharp fall in metal prices on year-on-year basis.

Fall in volumes in the commercial property segment and lower realisations in both commercial and residential property segments, will pull earnings of realty firms lower.

Banks are seen reporting a sedate growth in core lending. On the flip side, PSU banks will benefit from treasury gains amid volatility in prices of government securities during the quarter.

Strong growth in new subscriber additions will aid topline growth of telecom firms. But falling average revenue per user (ARPU) and revenue per minute due to intense competition will cap bottom line growth.

European shares bounced back on Wednesday from the previous session's decline, with soothing earnings results from Intel and ASML prompting investors to pick up riskier assets such as equities. Key benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK were up by between 1.92% to 2.3%.

Industrial production in the 16-nation euro zone rose by a weaker-than-expected 0.9% in August compared to July, the statistics agency Eurostat reported Wednesday. Compared to the same month last year, production was down 15.4%. Economists had forecast a 1.1% monthly rise, while the year-on-year figure was in line with forecasts.

Asian stocks rose on Wednesday after a better- than-estimated sales forecast from Intel Corp. boosted technology shares, offsetting a decline among financial companies. Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan rose by between 1.17% to 1.95%.

China's exports declined at the slowest pace in nine months, helping government efforts to sustain the recovery in the world's third-biggest economy. Shipments dropped 15.2% in September 2009 from a year earlier, the customs bureau said compared with a 23.4% slide in August 2009.

Lending by Chinese banks totaled 516.7 billion yuan ($75.68 billion) in September 2009, accelerating from 410.5 billion yuan in new loans issued in August 2009, according to data released Wednesday by the People's Bank of China. The new lending brings total loans issued in the first nine months of the year to 8.65 trillion yuan ($1.27 trillion), a rise of 149.1% on year.

Japan's Nikkei average lost 0.16% on Wednesday, dented by a slide in bank shares such as Mizuho Financial Group after their US peers fell ahead of earnings reports from several major banks this week.

The Bank of Japan kept markets guessing on Wednesday on the future of its support for corporate finance, avoiding any reference to the measures in a statement after its latest policy review. The central bank had been tipped to decide whether it would start withdrawing support for corporate finance, despite government criticism that the economy was still unstable.

Although it made no reference to funding measures in its statement, the central bank repeated its assessment that financial conditions were increasingly showing signs of improvement. It left its policy rate unchanged at 0.10%, as a widely expected, and upgraded its view on the economy, saying it was recovering.

Trading in US index futures indicated Dow could gain 117 points at the opening bell today, 14 October 2009.

US stocks slipped on Tuesday as disappointing sales from Johnson & Johnson stirred jitters about the strength of earnings, snapping the S&P 500's six-day winning streak. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 14.74 points, or 0.15 % to end at 9,871.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 3 points, or 0.28% to 1,073.19. But the Nasdaq Composite Index inched up just 0.75 of a point, or 0.04 % to 2,139.89.

Johnson & Johnson beat Wall Street's earnings expectations, but reported revenue that was below forecasts, sending its shares down 2.4%.

Intel, which supplies chips to around 80% of the world's personal computers, provided a strong outlook for the rest of the year, even as third-quarter profits slid 7.8%. The results which hit the market after trading hours on Tuesday surpassed Wall Street's expectations, helped by a return of consumers to the PC market. Its shares gained 4.3% after-hours in the US, with other major tech stocks also higher.

A key data due later in the day today, 14 October 2009, is US retail sales for September 2009. A broad-based increase in sales would indicate consumers are becoming more confident that the economy is rebounding. A decline would show households are relying on stimulus measures to justify spending.

US government's program allowing consumers to trade in older models for new, more fuel-efficient ones ended in late August 2009, translating into a 35% drop in auto sales last month.

US Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said on Tuesday the economy would likely be producing "well below" its potential for some time and that expectations of future inflation would more likely fall than rise

Closer home, a section of the market is concerned that a glut in share sales may suck liquidity from the secondary market. As per reports, 30 companies have filed their draft red herring prospectuses in September 2009 with market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for raising funds through initial public offering.

The corporate sector has raised large sums of money through equity and equity related instruments in the past six months or so to either to retire high cost debt or to fund expansion. The supply of paper by Indian firms appear limitless, raising concerns that additional share sales will suck liquidity from the secondary market.

As per one report, companies plan to raise over Rs 50,000 crore through initial public offers (IPOs), follow-up public offers, divestment of stake sale in the second half of the current financial year. Reliance Infratel also announced on 22 September 2009, its intention to raise Rs 5,000 crore from the primary market. A number of companies are also in the fray to raise funds by way of qualified institutional placement (QIP), reports suggest.

Divestment of state-run firms by the government may also increase the supply of paper in the market. As per recent reports, the government is planning to announce a blueprint for selling its stake in state-owned firms in the first week of October 2009. The policy is expected to suggest how the government will eventually bring down its stake in public sector companies to 75% over a period of time.

The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 204.40 points or 1.2% to 17,231.11, its highest closing since 21 May 2008. The Sensex rose 247.92 points at the day's high of 17,274.59 in late trade. The barometer index rose 91.23 points at the day's low of 17,117.90 in early trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty rose 63.95 points or 1.27% to 5,118.20, its highest closing since 16 May 2008. It hit a high of 5,127.40 in late trade. Nifty October 2009 futures were at 5,120, at discount of 1.80 points as compared to the spot closing of 5,118.20. Turnover in NSE's futures & options (F&O) segment was Rs 65,953.48 crore, lower than Rs 72,005.84 crore on Monday, 12 October 2009.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 6861 crore, higher than Rs 5284.64 crore on Monday, 12 October 2009.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market was strong. On BSE, 1675 shares advanced as compared with 1075 that declined. A total of 81 shares remained unchanged.

Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 25 rose while the rest fell.

The Sensex has risen 588.45 points or 3.53% in last two trading sessions. The Sensex is up 7,583.80 points or 78.61% in calendar year 2009 as on 14 October 2009. From a 3-year closing low of 8,160.40 on 9 March 2009, the Sensex is up 9070.71 points or 111.15% as on 14 October 2009. FII inflow in the calendar year 2009 totaled Rs 62963.10 crore (till 12 October 2009).

Coming back to today's trade, the BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.96% and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.54%. Both the indices outperformed the Sensex.

Sectoral indices on BSE displayed mixed trend. The BSE Metal index (up 5.27%), the BSE Capital Goods index (up 2.38%), the BSE Auto index (up 2.28%), the BSE PSU index (up 1.65%), the BSE Bankex (up 1.63%), the BSE Power index (up 1.6%), the BSE Consumer Durables index (up 1.51%), the BSE Healthcare index (up 1.44%), the BSE Realty index (up 1.44%), outperformed the Sensex.

The BSE Teck index (down 0.37%), the BSE FMCG index (up 0.47%), the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 0.52%), the BSE IT index (up 0.91%), underperformed the Sensex.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.51% to Rs 2,178.20, extending Monday's 3.19% gain. It hit a high of Rs 2195 and a low of Rs 2153.10. RIL is in advanced talks to acquire refinery and petrochemical units in the US and Europe and could finalise a deal by end-2009, Maurice Bannayan, senior vice president at Reliance Industries said on Wednesday.

Anil Dhirubali Ambaini group (ADAG) Chairman Anil Ambani called on Sunday, 11 October 2009, for a renewed effort to end a bitter feud with his brother Mukesh Ambani triggered by the carve-up of up a vast family business stretching from energy to telecommunications and financial services.

Anil Ambani said in a statement he believed "all disagreements can be sorted out in a constructive, cordial and conciliatory manner", and called for "a generous heart, a willing mind and accommodating spirit to resolve issues".

Their latest dispute is over a deal for Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries to sell gas to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) at below-market rates as agreed in a 2005 family settlement to divide the business following their father's death in 2002. The dispute has landed in the Supreme Court (SC). Anil Ambani said on Sunday the contentious gas dispute is a large national issue and can only be resolved through the SC.

Reliance Industries (RIL) said it welcomes Anil Ambani's call to make a renewed effort to "resolve, reconcile and reciprocate" and said it hopes that it is a positive change in the negative, calumnious and malafide campaign launched by ADAG against RIL.

RIL, last week, announced liberal 1:1 bonus issue. Both the bonus and the dividend are applicable to shareholders of the erstwhile Reliance Petroleum, which has been merged with RIL. Meanwhile, a sharp year on year fall in refining margins will weight on Q2 September 2009 results of RIL.

Oil exploration stocks rose as the crude surged on Wednesday to a 2009 high of $75.12 a barrel after Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) increased its world energy demand forecast and the weaker dollar boosted the appeal of commodities. Rise in crude oil prices would result in higher realizations from crude sales for oil exploration firms.

India's biggest state-run oil exploration firm by revenue Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) rose 1.09%. ONGC has bagged over a third of the 70 blocks offered under India's eighth New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP 8), amid luke-warm response towards the bidding round. ONGC bid for 25 blocks and was awarded 11 offshore and two onshore concessions.

Cairn India rose 6.36%. Cairn India, a unit of Cairn Energy, won 2 offshore blocks in the auction. But, India's second biggest state-run oil exploration firm by revenue Oil India fell 0.35%. Oil India won 5 offshore blocks in the auction.

Nearly half of 70 blocks offered found no bidder, with 76 bids submitted for 36 exploration blocks, D.N. Narasimha Raju, joint secretary in the oil ministry said on Monday.

PSU OMCs fell as higher crude oil prices will increase under-recoveries on domestic sale of petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG at controlled prices. HPCL, BPCL and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) fell by between 2.25% to 3.23%.

Telecom stocks dropped. India's largest cellular services provider by sales Bharti Airtel fell 3.25%. Bharti Airtel reported 10.32% decline in mobile user addition to 2.52 million mobile users in September 2009 over August 2009. For Bharti, this is the biggest month on month decline since the 22% drop the company saw in March 2005.

Chief Executive Manoj Kohli last week that the company is considering a bid for Millicom's assets in Sri Lanka. Sweden's Millicom has put its mobile operations in Sri Lanka up for sale.

India's second largest cellular services provider by sales Reliance Communications (RCom) fell 6.54% after the company was accused by a government-appointed auditors of under-reporting revenue to save on licence fees.

Reliance Communications (RCom) said it is in full compliance with all regulatory requirements in filing its financial statements. RCom has not received any communication from the Department of Telecom (DoT) on the special auditor's report, the company said in a statement.

Telecom stocks had risen recently after telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on 8 October 2009 that operators would be free to offer various tariff plans to their subscribers, including the per-second billing scheme, and they would also be free to fix the tariff per second.

This would come as a relief to the telecom operators who would have taken a hit on their revenues, if the per-second-billing model was to become mandatory, as telcos are already facing low revenues per subscriber. Telecom stocks had tumbled in the recent past on concerns over declining tariffs and rising competition.

Metal stocks rose on strong domestic demand. India's largest private sector steel maker by sales Tata Steel rose 4.69%. The company's domestic steel sales rose 19% in July-September 2009 quarter to 1.46 million tonnes from a year earlier. Domestic operations account for about a quarter of the group's total annual global capacity of 30 million tonnes, which includes unit Corus, Europe's second-largest steelmaker.

Among other metal stocks, National Aluminum Company, Hindalco Industries, Sterlite Industries rose by between 2.6% to 5.38%.

Steel Authority of India rose 2.77% on reports the company is considering buying coking coal mines in Australia, Indonesia and Mozambique with an Indian government joint venture.

India's largest engineering and construction firm by sales Larsen & Toubro rose 1.96% after it got orders worth Rs 966 crore.

India's largest power equipment maker by sales Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 3.07% on expectations of good Q2 September 2009 result. The company's Q2 result is due on 23 October 2009. Meanwhile, as per reports the company may set up a factory with Indian Railways to manufacture electrically powered trains.

Among other capital goods stocks, BEML, ABB, Praj Industries and Thermax, rose by between 1.07% to 5.75%.

Auto stocks rose on expectations of strong Q2 results. Higher volumes and increase in profit margins due to lower input costs are seen boosting the bottom line of auto firms in Q2 September 2009. India's largest tractor maker by sales Mahindra & Mahindra rose 6.12%. Total sales rose 10.94% to 28434 vehicles in September 2009 over September 2008. The company unveiled the sales figures during trading hours on 1 October 2009.

India's top small car maker by sales Maruti Suzuki India rose 0.2%. The company's total sales rose 17.3% to 83,306 vehicles in September 2009 over September 2008. The figures were released during trading hours on 1 October 2009.

India's largest truck maker by sales Tata Motors rose 4.07%. Tata Motors is planning to ramp up production of its Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, by a fifth this month, Rajiv Dube, head of the company's passenger car business said on Wednesday. The company said during market hours on Friday it has raised $750 million through an issue of global depositary receipts (GDRs) and convertible bonds. The company said it will use the funds to repay debt taken for acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

Tata Motors said the GDRs were issued at $12.54 each -- a 1.5% discount to Thursday's closing price of Rs 589.25 on NSE. The convertible notes were issued at a 7.5% conversion premium over the GDR price with a yield to maturity of 5.5%.

Total domestic automobile sales in the country in the first half of the financial year 2009-10 rose by 14.51% year-on-year to 57,82,920 units, according to automobile sales figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). The jump in sales for the April-September period came from the double-digit growth posted by the passenger vehicle segment (comprising cars and sports utility vehicles) which grew by 13.46%, by the 15.68% spurt in two-wheeler sales and by an increase of 12.37% in sales of three-wheelers

Construction shares rose as higher government spending on infrastructure sector in the Union Budget 2009-2010 to provide a stimulus to the economy, may result in increase order flow for construction. Jaiprakash Associates, Nagarjuna Construction Company, Punj Lloyd, gammon India, Valecha Engineering, Era Infra Engineering rose by between 1.37% to 12.03%.

The government has set a target of spending $20 billion a year on road construction.

Shares of diversified firm Grasim fell 0.53%. The company said on 3 October 2009 it will transfer its cement business to its unlisted unit Samruddhi Cement. The demerger will be completed by March 2010 after which Samruddhi Cement will be listed. Samruddhi will then make an offer to UltraTech Cement for consolidation of the group's cement business. For every share, shareholders of Grasim will get one share of Samruddhi.

Meanwhile, shares of UltraTech Cement fell 4.25%. The cement maker at its board meet held on 6 October 2009 gave in principle approval to a proposal to absorb group firm Samruddhi Cement. Aditya Birla group Grasim and UltraTech Cement currently operate a combined production capacity of 42 million tonnes a year or a fifth of India's cement capacity.

Among other cement stocks, ACC and Ambuja Cements fell by between 0.73% to 3.79%.

IT stocks rose on strong third quarter result from US chip major Intel Inc. IT bellwether Infosys Technologies rose 0.71% as its ADR rose 0.93% on Tuesday. Infosys raised its earnings and revenue guidance in both dollar and rupee terms for the year ending March 2010 (FY 2010) at the time of announcing Q2 September 2009 results before trading hour on Friday, 9 October 2009.

Infosys, however, said strengthening rupee is a big concern for its earnings. The rupee climbed to one-year highs on Wednesday buoyed by the dollar's broad-based fall and a stronger start to the stock market that could trigger more capital inflows. The partially convertible rupee was at 46.09, above its Monday's close of 46.48/49. A stronger rupee negatively impacts operating margins of IT firms as the sector earns a lion's share of revenue from exports.

India's largest software services exporter TCS rose 2.08%. A total of ten brokerages expect a between 6.8% fall to a 4.9% growth in TCS' consolidated net profit as per US accounting standards at between Rs 1416.30 crore to Rs 1595.40 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q1 June 2009. Their expectations peg a between 0.4% to 3.8% growth in revenue at between Rs 7237.70 crore to Rs 7478.40 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q1 June 2009. TCS unveils Q2 results on Friday, 16 October 2009

India's third largest software services exporter Wipro rose 1.28% even as its ADR fell 0.44% on Tuesday.

Power stocks rose on strong response to Indiabulls Power's IPO. Tata Power Company, Reliance Infrastructure, and CESC rose by between 1.81% to 3.57%.

India's largest thermal power generator by sale NTPC rose 2% after the company it has signed a joint venture agreement with state-run Coal India to develop the Brahmini and Chichro Patsimal coal mining blocks in eastern India. The mines will supply coal to NTPC's projects at Farakka and Kahalgaon.

After meeting the coal requirements of NTPC's projects, the JV may also consider setting up an integrated thermal power plant, NTPC said in a statement

Realty stocks rose on recent reports that demand for residential projects in major cities is picking up on lower home loan rates, property price cuts by developers and a recovery in the job market. Realty market had slumped last year amid a global credit crunch and buyers fearing job losses. DLF, Unitech, Ansal Properties, Omaxe, Sobha Developers rose by between 0.77% to 4.36%.

Bank stocks extended Monday's gains on market talks the central bank will hike the ceiling on the portion of government securities that banks can park in held-to-maturity (HTM) category. Banks do not have to make any mark-to-market provisions on securities held this basket if prices of securities fall. Provisions have to be made out of profit and therefore, impact a bank's bottom line. Yields on ten-year government bonds have risen sharply this year. Bond prices and bond yields are inversely related.

Indian banks can put bonds equal to 25% of the value of deposits in their HTM accounts. The market expectations is for an increase in the ceiling by up to 2 percentage points, possibly at a quarterly monetary policy review on 27 October 2009

India's largest bank by net profit and branch network State Bank of India rose 4.46%. As per reports, State Bank of India plans a series of investor presentations this week on the expected issue of a five-year dollar benchmark bond, an official at one of the banks managing the roadshow said on Monday. The bank's plans for a bond were first unveiled at the start of the month and would be the first from an Indian bank in the offshore G3 market since August 2007.

Among other PSU banks, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, rose by between 0.01% to 6.54%.

India's largest private sector bank by net profit ICICI Bank rose 0.07% as its ADR rose 0.36% on Tuesday. The bank last week reduced auto loan rates by 50 basis points.

India's second largest private sector bank by net profit HDFC Bank rose 0.13% after bank said during market hours today its net profit rose 30.2% to Rs 687.46 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008. The results were more or less in line with market expectations.

Axis Bank rose 1.91% after net profit rose 31.95% to Rs 531.64 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008. The results which hit the market at the fag end of the trading session on Monday were more or less in line with market expectations. The stock rose 1.66% on Monday.

India's largest dedicated housing finance firm HDFC rose 1.5%. HDFC, after market hours on Monday said net profit rose 24.27% to Rs 663.94 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008. The results beat market expectations. The stock had risen 2.41% on Monday ahead of the results

Sugar stocks surged on reports India's sugar output fell sharply in the year ended September 2009 on lower area under cultivation. Bajaj Hindustan, Shree Renuka Sugars, Dhampur Sugars and Balrampur Chini rose by between 4.74% to 10.93%.

With a high demand-supply gap, the country was forced to import 5 million tonnes of raw sugar - the same amount it exported a year ago - sparking a price rally in the global market.

Print media stocks rose as a recent steep slide in prices of newsprint, a key input, will boost profitability. Deccan Chronicle Holdings, HT Media, Sandesh and Jagran Prakashan rose by between 1.09% to 7.22%.

Newsprint prices have slumped over the past few months. Current newsprint prices of $435 a tonne are down 44% from their most recent peak in November 2008 of around $775 a tonne. The recent rally of the rupee against the dollar also bodes well for print media firms as it will bring down the import bill. Print media firms spend a large sum of money on import of newsprint.

FMCG stocks rose on revival in India's annual monsoon since mid-August. FMCG firms derive substantial revenue from the rural sector. United Spirits, Dabur India, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Britannia Industries rose by between 0.17% to 1.77%.

Fertiliser shares rose on revival in India's annual monsoon since mid-August 2009. Nagarjuna Fertilisers, Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals, GSFC, GNFC, National Fertilzer rose by between 0.28% to 1.61%. Fertilizer sales are directly dependent on monsoon. A bountiful monsoon boosts sales whereas a drought hits sales adversely.

Cals refineries clocked highest volume of 5.12 crore shares on BSE. Ispat Industries (1.14 crore shares), Unitech (1.12 crore shares), Teledata Infomatics (0.96 crore shares) and Sesa Goa (0.96 crore shares) were other volume toppers in that order.

Sesa Goa clocked highest turnover of Rs 328.03 crore on BSE. Reliance Capital (Rs 166.47 crore), Jindal Steel & Power (Rs 163.28 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 157.55 crore), Reliance Industries (up 155.52 crore) were other turnover toppers in that order.