Consolidating indices come off day's high levels; Nifty holds 6800 mark

The Indian equity benchmarks, exhibiting range bound consolidation throughout the day, trimmed minor gains and came off from the highs of the day to continue to trade marginally in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters, taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on positive note from the early trade after World Bank projected a better economic growth rate of 5.7% in fiscal year 2015 for India on back of a more competitive exchange rate and many large investments going forward. Traders were seen piling position in Realty, Power and Capital Goods stocks while selling was witnessed in HealthCare, IT and FMCG sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Tata Motors was trading firm after foreign brokerage firm raised its price target on the stock citing the outlook for the automaker’s luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Crompton Greaves was trading in green on hopes that power equipment maker will report a turnaround in earnings during the January-March quarter.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets were too trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,800 and 22,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1503:1128 while 143 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22747.15, up by 44.81 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 22,792.49 and 22,672.72. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices continued to outperform; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.88%, while Small cap index was up 0.80%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.68%, Power up by 2.67%, Capital Goods up by 1.46%, Metal up by 0.91% and PSU up by 0.73% while, HealthCare down by 0.99%, IT down by 0.47%, FMCG down by 0.45% and TECK down 0.31% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 3.10%, Tata Motors up by 2.83%, SBI up by 2.36%, BHEL up by 2.31% and NTPC up by 2.20%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.01%, M&M down by 1.76%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.43%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.99% and ITC down by 0.86% were the top losers on BSE.

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 6,811.15, up by 14.95 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 6,819.05 and 6,781.25. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declining stocks on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 3.23%, Tata Power up by 3.04%, Tata Motors up by 2.78%, SBI up by 2.41%, and BHEL up by 2.40%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.38%, M&M down by 1.97%, HCL Tech down by 1.90%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.62% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.48% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng up by 1.51%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.20%, Shanghai Composite up by 1.38% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.43 points. While, Jakarta Composite down by 3.28% and Straits Times was down by 0.10% were the only losers on the index.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.39%, Germany’s DAX added 0.70% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.68%.