Benchmarks continue to trade flat in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade range bound mainly near the neutral line with positive bias in the absence of any directional cues. The sentiments were on pessimistic mood from early trades dampened by rising inflation and weak industrial data and investors were seen selling defensive stocks such as IT, teck and healthcare stocks. However, gains in metal, banking and consumer durables has restrained the market to enter the negative territory. Further, firm Asian cues and the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) statement that India's exports are likely to grow at around 10 percent in 2014 provided some support to investors’ sentiments. IT stocks were under pressure with Infosys, TCS and Wipro were trading down by over 1% ahead of the results of TCS and HCL Technologies which could dictate the future trend of markets.

Crompton Greaves has rallied nearly 6% to around Rs 188, its highest level since July 2011 on reports that the Japanese Hitachi, has emerged as the front-runner to buy the promoter's stake in the power transmission and distribution company promoted by Gautam Thapar. Jubilant FoodWorks was trading higher by 2% at Rs 1,050 after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) would be able to purchase up to 55% of the paid-up capital in the company.

On global front, Asian equity indices were trading in green with Nikkei 225 up by 2.88% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.08%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,750 and 22,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,300 stocks traded, 1,228 stocks advanced, while 956 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22,497.93 up by 12.57 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 22,533.61 and 22,458.52. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.24%, while Small cap index up by 0.38%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.23%, Bankex up by 0.99%, Consumer Durables up by 0.83%, FMCG up by 0.82% and Auto up by 0.45%. While, IT down by 1.62%, Teck down by 1.09%, Capital Goods down by 0.32% and Healthcare down by 0.27% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Inds up by 2.27%, Tata Steel up by 1.87%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.53%, SSLT up by 1.15% and ICICI Bank up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.47%, TCS down by 1.68%, Wipro down by 1.09%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 1.00% and HDFC down by 0.88%.

Meanwhile, as per the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), India's exports are likely to grow at around 10 percent in 2014. The FIEO president Rafeeque Ahmed highlighted that India's export growth has been more than double the global trade growth adding that during the period 2005- 2013, world trade grew by 7.35 percent on an average, while India's exports jumped by 15.66 percent on an average during this period.

The World Trade Organization projects global trade to recover and grow by 4.7 percent in 2014, more than double the trade value achieved in 2013. The growth is also projected to be slightly faster at 5.3 percent in 2015, which is also the 20-year average. Basing its forecast on the WTO's projections of global trade, the domestic exports body expects a minimum of 10 percent increase in exports during 2014.

During the financial year of 2014, Indian exports recorded a modest growth of about 3.96 percent to $312.35 billion, however the exports value remained below the set export target at $325 for reported fiscal. On sector wise, the exports of gems and jewellery declined by 8.82 percent to $39.52 billion in FY14 from a year earlier amid prevailing Government’s restriction on precious metals imports. Petroleum exports, which account for about 20 percent of India's outward shipments, dipped 0.01% to $60.85 billion in FY14, while engineering exports registered growth of 8.49% respectively to $61.61 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,741.95 up by 8.85 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 6,748.65 and 6,724.65. There were only 31 stocks advancing against 19 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 2.50%, Hindalco up by 2.64%, Jindal Steel up by 2.05%, PNB up by 1.87% and Cairn up by 1.79%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.45%, BPCL down by 2.00%, TCS down by 1.86%, Wipro down by 0.99% and BHEL down by 0.91% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Nikkei 225 up by 2.88% to 14,399.48, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.08% to 8,993.82, Straits Times was up by 0.28% to 3,255.45, Jakarta Composite up by 0.27% to 4,883.40, Shanghai Composite up by 0.35% to 2,108.55 and Hang Seng up by 0.70% to 22,830.32.03.