Benchmarks trade flat in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks, after surging to new record highs in early deals and soon paring away most of the gains were trading range bound near the neutral line in afternoon session. Selling witnessed in defensive stock such as healthcare, IT and teck dragged the market down, though major indices managed to remain in green territory supported by the gains in rate sensitive stocks such as realty, power and capital goods. Sentiments got some support as the World Bank projected an economic growth rate of 5.7 percent in fiscal year 2015 for India on the back of a more competitive exchange rate and many large investments going forward. Further Indian companies mopped up $4.30 billion in February which was almost 140 percent more than the amount raised in the previous month, indicating that global investors are confident about Indian businesses. The broader markets were outperforming the benchmarks with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by over 0.70%.

Shares of Adani Group companies such as Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Adani Power were trading higher by up to 9% on BSE. Torrent Pharmaceuticals has surged by nearly 9% to its record high to Rs 608 on report that Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the company’s proposed of Rs 2,000 crore acquisition of Elder Pharma's formulations business in India and Nepal. Man Industries has increased by around 10% to Rs 72.15 after bagging orders worth Rs 700 crore from domestic and international customers for the supply of large dia meter pipes for oil and gas as well as water sector projects.

On global front, Asian equity indices were trading in green with Shanghai Composite up by 1.22% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.10%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,750 and 22,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,426 stocks traded, 1356 stocks advanced, while 954 stocks declined on the BSE

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22,708.10 up by 5.76 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 22,792.49 and 22,672.72. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.76%, while Small cap index up by 0.74%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.56%, Realty up by 1.10%, Capital Goods up by 1.00%, Consumer Durables up by 0.86% and Auto up by 0.54%. While, Healthcare down by 0.70%, FMCG down by 0.48%, IT down by 0.42% and Teck down by 0.24% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.51%, BHEL up by 2.17%, SBI up by 2.16%, NTPC up by 1.49% and Gail India up by 1.15%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.54%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 1.51%, M&M down by 1.37%, Sun Pharma down by 1.26% and Cipla down by 1.09%.

Meanwhile, industrial activity in India moderated in March mainly due to the onset of the election code of conduct for general elections in the country, as per the report by global financial firm Zyfin Research. The Business Cycle Indicator (BCI) - an index to gauge the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) expanded by 5.1% in March compared to 5.4% a month ago, indicating a marginal decline in industrial activity.

However, the research firm expects that it is a temporary deviation and industrial activity will pickup in the coming months. In February, the industrial output showed a virtual halt in growth as it expanded by a mere 0.1%. India’s annual industrial output growth grew marginally at 0.1% in January as compared to -0.6% in December and 2.5% in the same month previous year. Further, cumulative growth for the period April-January 2013-14 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood flat.  

Referring to economic growth, the ZyFin Research highlighted that a sustained and speedy recovery in economic activity remains difficult unless the economy experiences an adequate demand push. Further it added that spending activity has still been remaining sluggish and any major recovery in consumer spending is unlikely for the next six months. At present, Indian economy is struggling with slowdown and its growth slowed down to a decade low at 4.5 percent in FY13 and 4.6 percent during the first three quarter of FY14.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,795.30 down by 0.90 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 6,816.45 and 6,781.25. There were only 28 stocks advancing against 22 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were NMDC up by 2.68%, Tata Motors up by 2.55%, BHEL up by 2.31%, SBI up by 2.14% and Ambuja Cement up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.75%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 1.66%, M&M down by 1.64%, Cipla down by 1.62% and ONGC down by 1.55% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng up by 0.77% to 23,019.39, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.20% to 8,948.10, Shanghai Composite up by 1.22% to 2,130.98 and Nikkei 225 up by 0.10% to 14,314.40. While, Jakarta Composite down by 3.18% to 4,764.66 and Straits Times was down by 0.16% to 3,204.45.