Open: Consumer durables top gainer, HUL at life-time high. Here's why

Indian markets are off to a positive start today on the back of firm global cues from China and the US. while the Nifty is up around 20 points at 5266, the Sensex is up 70 points at 17386.81.Buying was seen in consumer durables, FMCG, metal and realty stocks. Auto stocks were trading sluggish in trade today.

Broking firm Sykes & Ray Equities (SRE) Research has recommended avoiding short positions above resistance levels of 17,319. In a note, the firm said “Market appears to be positive on charts for today’s session. Therefore, it would be safe to avoid short position above the resistance levels of 17,319 and 5,268.”

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Sudarshan Sukhani of S2analytics.com expects the market to rally on the back of better global cues. However, he is not long on the market and suggests that one should sell if a rally is seen.

Another broking firm Indira Securities expects markets to trade in the range of 5,275 & 5,310 in the upper side and 5,230 & 5,210 in the lower side. “On Monday, the markets closed with moderate gains with IT, tech and realty being the best performers. While consumer durables, FMCG and healthcare were showing some weakness,” it added.

Bharti Airtel just posted its results for the fourth quarter. The company expected a net profit of Rs 1,006 crore against a CNBC-TV18 poll of 1,165 crore. Bharti’s revenues, however, came in at Rs 18,729 crore vs a CNBC-TV18 Poll Of Rs 18,940 Crore. The company said it suffered doue to a forex loss of around Rs 132 crore, which hurt the company’s bottomline. The stock is up 1.5 percent today.

In earnings action, FMCH major HUL which posted better than expected Q4 numbers, is trading at its life-time high of Rs 428.60. The stock is currently up 3 percent. The company posted a 21 percent jump in profits on the back of 10 percent volume growth. Also, an expansion in EBITDA margins by 26 percent attributed to decline in A&P spends.

Pantaloon is set to spin off its branded retail business and list it separately on stock exchanges. The Biyani-led company has invited Aditya Birla Nuvo to invest Rs 800 crore via debentures of Pantaloon Retail. The stock is down 2.268 percent at Rs 183.55.

The BSE Small-Cap and BSE Mid-Cap index was trading up 1 percent.

Bankex, Power, Realty,Metal , PSU,HC, Consumer Durables,FMCG, Consumer Goods Power, IT, Oil and Gas, Teck, indices are the gainers. Auto indices was the only loser. Consumer Durables is the top gainer so far followed by FMCG, Metals, Realty and Banking indices. The rest of the sectoral plays are marginally positive.

The E-GoM on spectrum headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee met yesterday and finalised the 2G auction process. The bids from auctioneers will be invited soon.

Punj Lloyd also beat estimates with net sales witnessing a 35% growth.

Results today include Hyderabad Ind PNB Gilts, Century Textiles, kansai Nerolac Paints, Sona Koyo, VIP andHDFC Life and Hereo Motorcorp.

In the auto space, Hero may see strong double digit year on year growth in profits due to decent volumes and stable margins.

For the month of April, Maruti’s total sales come in at 1 lakh units year on year while M&M performs better with total vehicle sales coming in above 40,000 units. Tata Motors, however, sees total sales down 7 percent.

Bank of India cuts its base rate by 25 basis points to 10.50%. It has cut its BPLR by 25 bps to 14.75%.

HCC bags an Rs 800 crore order for Narmada River Bridge from the Gujarat government.

Samvardhan Motherson Finance issue opens today with a price band of Rs 113-118 per share. The company has already issued 1.93 crore shares at Rs 115 per share to four anchor investors to raise Rs 22 crore. The investors are First State Investments, Ivy Pacific Opportunities Fund, Birla Sun Life MF and GIC.

The Economic Times reports that the government and the RBI are working on giving corporates more leeway in repaying their foreign currency debts. This is positive for companies like JSW Steel, Suzlon and Tata Steel that have high foreign borrowing.

On Monday, IT major announced that it had acquired analytics company Promax Applications group for Rs 192 crore.

FIIs in F&O on April 28

FIIs net buy Rs 275 cr in Index Futures; OI contracts up by 15668

FIIs net buy Rs 632 cr in Index Options; OI contracts up by 21225

FIIs net buy Rs 75 cr in Stock Futures; OI contracts up by 1246