Markets manages to hold in green in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks paired some early gains but continued to trade in green on the back of fresh buying by funds and retail investors. Though, the major indices were following a tight range, the gain in realty and consumer durable stocks has provided support to the markets. Investors were also seen piling up position in blue chip stocks such as Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Infosys among others. Sentiments got a boost after Finance Minister P Chidambaram asserted that India's economic growth is likely to recover and achieve 6 percent growth level in FY15 on the back of sound economic policies and a pick-up in investment. Most of the major indices were trading in green, though there were considerable weakness in capital goods and metal stocks, restraining markets’ upside potential. Realty was the top gainer of BSE, up by around 1.24%. Buying was also witnessed in financial and IT stocks. Broader indices once again outperform the benchmarks with both mid and small cap trading up by over 0.60%. 

Marico has surged around 5% to nearly Rs 213 after reporting a healthy 32% yoy jump in consolidated operating profit at Rs 154 crore for Q4 FY14. M&M has slid by around 1.6% at Rs 1055 after its domestic sales dropped by 15% at 34,107 units as against 39,902 in the same month previous year. Stocks of Hindalco Industries was under pressure and down by 1.8% to Rs 132 as CBI questioning former coal secretary PC Parakh for allegedly showing undue favours in allocating coal blocks to the company.

On global front, Asian equity indices were trading mixed with Hang Seng up by 0.70% and Nikkei 225 down by 0.18% to 14,459.72. 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 2,256 stocks traded, 1,266 stocks advanced, while 879 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22,489.56 up by 71.76 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 22,575.62 and 22,433.55. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.69%, while Small cap index up by 0.94%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.24%, Healthcare up by 1.02%, IT up by 0.99%, Teck up by 0.89% and Bankex up by 0.63%. While, Capital Goods down by 0.94%, Metal down by 0.77% and Auto down by 0.12% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.31%, Infosys up by 1.20%, ICICI Bank up by 1.18%, Sun Pharma up by 1.01% and TCS up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Hindalco Inds down by 2.90%, L&T down by 1.48%, M&M down by 1.41%, Tata Steel down by 1.35% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.25%.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asserted that India's economic growth is likely to recover and achieve 6 percent growth level in FY15 on the back of sound economic policies and a pick-up in investment.  Chidambaram added that if the new government formed after the general election will follow sound policies and the 10-point agenda outlined in the interim Budget, Indian economic growth in current fiscal would be better than previous fiscal. Chidambaram’s statement came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was told in the internal Planning Commission meeting that Indian economy was in a fragile situation and there were no major signs of recovery.

Chidambaram further asserted that India's economy is expanding at a faster pace as compared to the other countries and has emerged as the world's third-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). However, Finance Minister mentioned that weak international situation will remain a concern to Indian economic growth. Blaming the global factor for current economic slowdown, Chidambaram further said that India's economic expansion was adversely impacted by the global economic slowdown. Though, the government has taken various measures to boost the economic growth.

At present, Indian economy is struggling with slowdown and its growth has slowed down to a decade low at 4.5 percent in FY13 and 4.6 percent during the first three quarter of FY14. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has expected that Indian economy to grow at 4.9 percent in FY14.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,715.20 up by 18.80 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 6,737.65 and 6,698.70. There were only 31 stocks advancing against 19 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were NMDC up by 3.06%, Tata Power up by 2.18%, Asian Paints up by 1.87%, BPCL up by 1.76% and Lupin up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 4.09%, Hindalco Inds down by 2.68%, Tata Steel down by 1.56%, M&M down by 1.47% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.35% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite up by 0.24% to 4,851.65, Hang Seng up by 0.70% to 22,289.39 and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.86% to 8,867.32. While, Nikkei 225 down by 0.18% to 14,459.72 and Straits Times was down by 0.46% to 3,249.73.