Mahurat Trading: Markets open firm, Nifty above 6,300

BHEL, Sun Pharma among the top gainers on the Sensex

Markets have welcomed Samvat 2070 on a strong note on the special Mahurat trading session this Diwali, with both the benchmark indices close to all-time highs.

The BSE S&P Sensex has opened higher by 85 points at 21,282 and the 50-share Nifty has advanced 26 points to open at 6,326.

Said Dipen Shah, Head of Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities: “We believe that, in the near term, focus of the markets will continue to remain on global liquidity, Q2FY14 results as well as outcome of the state elections which are going to be held in 5 states. Over the medium-to-long term, initiatives to improve domestic economic data points and reduction in interest rates will be important triggers. Further progress on fast tracking infrastructure projects would be positive.”

“At about 14-14.5x consensus FY15 earnings, valuations are not undemanding. Most of the defensive stocks are richly valued whereas stocks with low valuations do not have adequate growth visibility. We believe that, at the start of the new Samvat, one should adopt a selective approach across sectors. We do like select stocks in sectors like IT, Media and private sector banks. Within beaten-down 'domestically-oriented' and 'investment-led' sectors, one can look at stocks having attractive valuations, strong balance sheets and ethical management,” he adds.

Stock watch

BHEL is the top gainer among the Sensex stocks the stoch has advanced 1.2% to open at Rs 145. Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Hindalco, State Bank of India, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, maruti Suzuki and ONGC have also opened higher by a per cent each.

On the other hand, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and HUL are among the notable losers.

All the sectoral indices have opened in the green. The BSE Consumer durables index is the top gainer, up nearly 1% at 6,312. Healthcare, PSU, oil & gas, auto and FMCG indices are also 0.6-0.8% each.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up over 1% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,085 shares advancing and 248 shares declining.