Markets cheer oil's fall, HPCL & IOC gain

• More than the equity market, it’s the oil and other commodities market that is attracting attention. Crude oil, which saw it second-largest fall yesterday, fell further by $5 a barrel. At the opening bell crude oil had risen in Asia, but crashed later in the day.

• Taking cue from crude prices, equity markets in India that were subdued after the initial move, bounced back to life. The BSE Sensex currently trades at 18,425.69, up 215 points or 1.22%. The NSE Nifty rose by 62.45 points to 5522.30.

• Oil refining and marketing companies like HPCL, BPCL and IOC were all trading higher by 3%. Cairn India, the oil production company, which recently closed its open offer, fell by 4%.

• European markets where mixed but Asian markets closed the day in negative. US futures were up after a sharp fall the previous day.

• Despite the nearly 215 point rise, the market breadth was marginally positive with 1403 shares advancing 1258 declining and 132 remain unchanged.

• Banks continued their recovery with ICICI leading the pack by increasing 4.5%, followed by AXIS Bank (4.15%) and HDFC Bank (3.27%).

• There were six losers in the BSE Sensex lead by Reliance Infra (3.24%), followed by the commodity company Sterlite (2%). Among the leaders where ICICI Bank (4.81%), Tata Motors (4.6%) and HDFC Bank 3.10%).

• Glaxo announced its results a few minutes back posting a profit of Rs 46 lakh as compared to Rs 16,119 lakh. This was mainly on account of an exceptional item (net of tax) outgo of Rs 18,587 lakh during the quarter which had risen due to a government order on one of its product. Sales of the company grew from Rs 55,212 lakh to Rs 61,440 lakh. The stock has risen by 1.16% and is trading at Rs 2,280.

• JP Morgan slashed the target price of SKS Micro from Rs 550 to Rs 200. As a result the stock has fallen by 18% to Rs 343.

• Drugmaker Cadila Healthcare’s quarterly net profit jumped 50.4 percent, substantially beating street estimates, on robust growth in sales coupled with forex gains. The Ahmedabad-based firm on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 179 crore on net sales of Rs 1,169 crore for January-March. A Reuters’ poll of 18 brokerages had forecast a consolidated quarterly net profit of Rs 143 crore on net sales of Rs 1,030 crore.