Benchmarks make firm start; blue-chips gain

Benchmarks made a firm start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals with a gain of around half a percent on Wednesday. Sentiments remained up-beat after provisional data released by the stock exchanges showed that foreign funds were net buyers of Indian stocks on April 22, 2014. Buying in blue-chips too aided sentiments, Infosys, L&T, HDFC Bank, RIL and ONGC all edged higher on the Sensex. Global cues too remained supportive with the US markets ending higher, continuing their gaining streak for yet another day on the back of some positive corporate earnings and some M&A news. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red, and the Chinese market pared gains after preliminary manufacturing data signaled persisting weakness in the world’s second-largest economy.

Back home, gains remained capped up-to certain extent as rupee weakened past the key 61 per dollar mark on Wednesday to hit a one-month low, tracking losses in regional currencies and hurt by good demand for the greenback from oil importers. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 61.01 per dollar in early deals, after hitting as much as 61.03, its lowest since March 21. On the sectoral front, capital goods, healthcare and auto witnessed the maximum gains, while realty and metal remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were going neck-to-neck with the benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1089 shares on the gaining side against 568 shares on the losing side while 76 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 22783.65; about 25 points higher compared to its previous closing of 22758.37, and touched a high and a low of 22871.27 and 22780.13 respectively. The index is currently trading at 22852.89, up by 94.52 points or 0.42%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 62.84% stocks advancing against 32.78% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.45% and Small cap gained 0.51%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 0.97%, Healthcare up by 0.84%, Oil & Gas up by 0.63%, Auto up by 0.61% and PSU up by 0.56%, while Realty down by 0.59% and Metal down by 0.24% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.98%, Sun Pharma up by 1.74%, Gail India up by 1.29%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.28% and L&T up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Hindalco was down by 0.90%, SSLT was down by 0.54%, NTPC was down by 0.48%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.35% and Bajaj Auto was down by 0.30% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to boost the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC), a state owned enterprise controlled by the Ministry of Commerce, will offer direct factoring facility for MSMEs sector. Factoring is a cash management tool under which an enterprise or business person sells accounts receivable at a discount to a third party funding agency to raise capital.

The ECGC has planned to introduce direct factoring facility service in the second quarter of the current financial year, which would help small enterprises to meet their working capital requirements without approaching banks. The ECGC had already launched a new country-risk rating for the benefit of MSMEs.

It has become imperative for India to boost the MSME sector which contributes around 8% of the country's GDP, 45% of the manufactured output and provides employment to over 8 crore people. Meanwhile, the government has been taking various measures to boost the sector’s growth and has increased Budget allocation for the sector to Rs 24,000 crore in the 12th Five-Year Plan from Rs 11,000 crore in the previous five-plan period. The government has also set up a six-member inter-ministerial panel, which will suggest measures to boost the MSME exports.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,823.25; about 8 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,815.35, and has touched a high and a low of 6,861.60 and 6,820.75 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,837.65, up by 22.30 points or 0.33%. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 2.09%, Sun Pharma up by 1.57%, Ambuja Cements up by 1.49%, Gail up by 1.42% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.39%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.13%, Hindalco down by 0.93%, HCL Tech down by 0.82%, SSLT down by 0.62% and IndusInd Bank down by 0.54% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite dropped 9.26 points or 0.45% to 2,063.57, Hang Seng declined by 164.54 points or 0.72% to 22,566.14, Jakarta Composite contracted 4.78 points or 0.10% to 4,893.43, KLSE Composite dipped by 0.22 points or 0.01% to 1,866.20, Straits Times decreased 19.17 points or 0.58% to 3,258.36, Seoul Composite crumbled by 1.83 points or 0.09% to 2,002.39 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 11.48 points or 0.13% to 8,963.23.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 113.83 points or 0.79% to 14,502.60.