MUMBAI, June 18: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets on Tuesday closed the day’s trade up 153.97 points at 16,859.80 points, led by good buying support for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and oil and gas stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,681.89 points, closed up 153.97 points, or 0.92 per cent at 16,859.80 points from its previous close of 16,705.83 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 16,890 points and a low of 16,681.89 points in the intra-day trade.

The BSE midcap index was up 10.12 points while the smallcap index fell 0.54 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was 39.60 points or 0.78 per cent up at 5,103.85 points.

The BSE oil and gas sectoral index was up 166.21 points, the FMCG index was up 75.17 points and health care index was up 73.96 points.

Major Sensex gainers were Gail India, up 8.70 points at Rs 336.15; Reliance Industries, up 18.55 points at Rs 737.25; ITC, up 6.05 points at Rs 249.10; Bharti Airtel, up 5.65 points at Rs 314.75; and ONGC, up 4.40 points at Rs 267.60.

Major Sensex losers were Sterlite Inds, down 1.55 points at Rs 94.35; BHEL, down 2.85 points at Rs 211.55; Infosys, down 32.35 points at Rs 2,478.55; Tata Power, down 1.05 points at Rs 91.05 and Jindal Steel, down 1.06 points at Rs 427.80. (IANS)

LOS CABOS (MEXICO), June 19: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday assured that investor sentiment will be improved and the economy nursed to high growth path again, as citizens were “impatient” for more.

“We are determined to create an environment that would boost investor sentiment and promote an atmosphere conducive to enterprise and creativity,” the Prime Minister told the G20 Summit here.

“Our policies will be transparent, stable and designed to provide a level playing field to both domestic and foreign investors,” he said, using the forum to send the message that his government now meant business.

According to him, even as India’s growth at 6.9 per cent appeared good to the outside world, the citizens desired more. He said this desire will be met with steps like infrastructure investment and improving investor sentiment.

“Our growth rate in 2011-12 declined to 6.9 per cent from the level of 8.4 per cent in the previous year. This may look like a reasonable figure given the growth rates being experienced in the rest of the world,” the Prime Minister told the plenary session of the G20 Summit.

“But our public is impatient for a return to high growth and faster jobs creation. The fundamentals of the Indian economy remain strong and we are confident of bringing back the rhythm of high growth of 8-9 per cent per annum.”

He also said the fiscal stimulus that was injected in 2008 will be reversed and hard decisions taken to cut doles in areas such as fertilizers and fuels.

“In this context, I would like to mention a landmark effort underway in India to provide unique identity numbers for all residents with capture of biometric data,” the Prime Minister said.

“This massive database covering over a billion people will facilitate delivery of a whole range of financial and other services, through effective targeting and reduced leakages in subsidy schemes." (IANS)

LOS CABOS (MEXICO), June 19: India, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa on Monday explored mechanisms, such as swap arrangement and a reserve fund to protect their currencies against external risks.

The mechanisms were discussed during an informal meeting hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among the leaders of BRICS nations on the margins of the G20 Summit here, according to a statement issued on Monday.

“They (G20 leaders) agreed to ask their finance ministers and central bank governors to work on this important issue, in a manner compatible with internal legal frameworks, and report back to the leaders at the 2013 BRICS Summit.”

Under swap arrangements, one country with a weaker currency seeks to hedge the exchange rate risk by swapping it with another currency with the hope that the transaction will be settled when the situation improves.

Besides Manmohan Singh, the meeting was attended by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South African President Jacob Zuma.

The leaders primarily discussed the current global financial crisis and felt the trouble in Eurozone threatened financial and economic stability across the world, and required cooperative solutions. (IANS)

SP Tulsian positive on Raymond, Arvind

Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, “In case of S Kumars it is very difficult to take a call because the kind of volatility extreme we see on one day it corrects by about 10-12% in a single day then settles. These kinds of moves are happening. Whenever the stock gets corrected then it takes about couple of weeks to come back to that or regain the entire losses. But yes, there are concerns on the Arvind that the stock has not been performing well because of the bad Q4 numbers posted by the company and delay in monetization of the realty assets also.” He further added, “I will be keeping my positive view especially on Raymond and Arvind from hereon. Even the positive view is maintained on S Kumars also. But volatility or the kind of extreme weakness, which we are seeing in S Kumars, is really difficult to understand. But from hereon I don’t think that much downside is seen in all three stocks.”

Short Axis Bank, says Rahul Mohindar

Mohindar told CNBC-TV18, “I think all the banks are virtually at very important support levels and interestingly if Axis Bank breaks Rs 990 which was yesterdays low incidentally, that would really trigger some kind of severe fall.” He further added, “If I am talking about breaking Rs 990, if I am looking at a very short term intraday perspective may be Rs 960 but I think that would extrapolate further on over a couple of days to about Rs 920. So that is a comfortable short resistance on the stock is at about a Rs 1015 and that’s where I’d like to place a stoploss.”

Sell Tata Steel, says Mohindar

Mohindar told CNBC-TV18, “In Tata Steel I think we have reached a point of resistance around Rs 427 and around the current levels of Rs 420-425 this makes a good sell. Clearly with a stoploss above Rs 427 I think the stock can really correct downwards more towards levels like Rs 395 in the near term.” He further added, “I really don’t see any significant breakout with yesterday’s move; I read that clearly as sporadic intraday move that happened, so again using this trading move to sell into.”