Benchmarks continue to hold their fort in green with splendid gains

Trading firmly, benchmarks continue to hold their fort in green with splendid gains of over 3/ 4 of a percent on sustained buying activities by market-participants on availability of beaten down, but fundamentally strong stocks. Amidst across board buying activity, thanks to positive global set-up, none of the sectoral indices were trading in red. Nonetheless, leading the rally were the stocks from Auto, Information Technology and Realty counters. Near day’s high, both Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 22,450 and 6,700 levels respectively. Meanwhile, broader indices continuing to trade steady, were holding gains of close to a percent.

On the global front, while most of Asian counter parts were settling for mostly positive close, European markets got off to a flatish one despite the dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair women. On Wednesday Janet Yellen, in her second public speech as Federal Reserve Chair, stressed the need for accommodative policy citing persistently low inflation and economic slack.  Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22459.46, up by 182.33 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 22496.61 and 22312.19. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index. The market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which outnumbered declines in the ratio of 1418:402; while 42 shares remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.79%, while Small cap index up by 1.06%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.38%, Information Technology up by 1.29%, Realty up by 1.24%, Consumer Durables up by 1.17% and TECK up by 1.04%. There were no losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.60%, ICICI Bank up by 2.35%, Wipro up by 2.31%, Axis Bank up by 2.02% and Tata Power up by 1.59%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 1.83%, NTPC down by 0.90%, Coal India down by 0.35%, Tata Steel down by 0.18% and DR Reddy’s lab down by 0.05% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher has asserted that Indian exports will cross $325 billion in the current fiscal year on the back of recovery witnessing in the global economy. Rajeev Kher stressed that India's performance on exports front will improve as US economy is certainly going up, while the European countries are showing sign of stabilization.

The exports target for FY 15 will be set by the new government formed after the general election. In FY14, India's exports grew marginally by 3.96 percent to $312.35 billion, which was below the set export target at $325 billion. The contraction in exports was mainly driven by fall in shipments of country’s most exports orientated sectors such as petroleum, gems and jewellery, engineering and pharmaceuticals. 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 five-year foreign trade policy FTP (2009-14) ended on March 31 and the new government will introduce new FTP for the period 2014-19. Presently, India's share in global trade stands at about 2 percent.  India’s exports have been hovering near $300 billion over the last three fiscal years and it has become imperative to boost country’s exports and enhance its contribution in the world trade. Meanwhile, the new FTP is likely to promote exports of specific products in specific geographies and would also abolish conventional method of exports through focusing more on areas like high-tech items, branding of products in the global market and new strategy for marketing.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,727.50, up by 52.20 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 6,741.65 and 6,684.40. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.69%, Jindal Steel up by 2.45%, ICICI Bank up by 2.39%, Ambuja Cements up by 2.33% and Wipro up by 2.31%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 1.91%, NTPC down by 1.02%, Power Grid down by 0.97%, Coal India down by 0.48% and Mcdowell down by 0.47% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Taiwan Weighted up by 0.23%, Jakarta Composite inched up by 0.30% and Hang Seng added 0.29%. While, Shanghai Composite slid by 0.21%, Nikkei 225 down by 0.15% and Straits Times was down by 0.01%.