Crisis wards off…Nifty hits 2-year high

The Indian indices extended their gains on Wednesday with the Nifty crossing the psychological 6000 mark intra-day; the last time it touched these levels was in Jan 2011. The Sensex managed to end above the 19,700 mark. The "fiscal cliff" crisis was averted after the House of Representatives approved a Senate bill that raised tax for the rich and delayed spending cuts. Asian Markets were higher on Wednesday. Hong Kong was up 1.91%, while Singapore gained 1.26% and Seoul rose 1.48%. Financial markets in Japan and China were closed for a public holiday. "Nifty continued Tuesday’s momentum and scaled past the 6,000 mark in intra-day trade as indices across Asia rallied on the US fiscal cliff being averted. Sentiment also improved after India's manufacturing activity surged to a six-month high in December 2012. Going ahead, we firmly believe the government policy measures will continue as downgrade fears have not been completely dispelled.This will provide further impetus to the recent rally", says Amar Ambani; Head of Research - IIFL. Wall Street ended higher as Dow Jones finished up 1.28%, the S&P 500 gained 1.69% and the Nasdaq Composite surged 2%. The House voted by 257 votes to 167 to pass the original bill with minority Democrats joining a smaller number of majority Republicans to pass the legislation. The dollar rose to 87.18 yen from 86.69 yen on Monday and the euro strengthened to $1.3272 from $1.3192. On oil markets, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February gained 63 cents to $92.45 a barrel. Gold was at $1,677.72 at 0440 GMT compared with $1,658.90 late Friday. Finally, BSE Sensex closed 19714, up 133 points over the previous close. It had earlier touched a day's high of 19756 and a day's low of 19686. It opened at 19693. The NSE Nifty closed at 5,993 up 42 points over the previous close. It earlier touched a day’s high of 6,006 and a day’s low of 5982. It opened at 5,982. The BSE Small-Cap index and BSE Mid- Cap index was trading up at 1%. RIL, SBI, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, BHEL, HDFC, ONGC, Dr Reddys Lab, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Hindalco Inds, are among gainers in Sensex and Nifty. Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Coal India, HUL, M&M were among losers in Sensex and Nifty. Oil and Gas, HC, PSU, Power, Realty, Metal, Teck, Oil and Gas, Consumer Durables, Bankex, Capital Goods, Metal, are the gainers. Realty, IT, FMCG indices are the losers. The advance decline ratio was in favour of the bulls. 1766 stocks advanced against 1184 declining stocks. Only 151 stocks remained unchanged. The INDIA VIX on NSE shot up down by 0.21% to end at 13.66. It hit a day’s high of 13.91 and day's low of 12.99. Stocks which hit 52-week high during the week were Reliance Cap, Hinduja Vent, Agro Tech Foods, LIC Housing Fin, MRF. Stocks which hit 52 week low during the week were Autoriders Fin, EIH, Geodesic, BCL Forgings, Indiaco Vent. Other Corporate News The seasonally adjusted HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index posted 54.7 in December, up from 53.7 in November. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram speaking on 14th Finance Commission hinted at a possible hike in gold import duty. FM is mulling over the option as oil and gold import bill weigh heavy on the current account deficit situation of the country. Current account deficit has widened to 5.4% in the September quarter.