Markets trade in fine fettle in early deals on Monday

Indian equity benchmarks, after a tepid opening, have picked up pace and are trading in fine fettle in early deals, supported by report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 386.95 crore on May 2, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. However, gains remained capped on report that latest estimates worked out by the Planning Commission expects that the Indian economy’s annual average growth rate may not exceed 6 percent during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), compared with the target of 8 percent. On the currency front, the rupee has opened with marginal gains of 7 paise at 60.09 per dollar versus 60.16 on Friday.

On the global front, US markets had ended lower over the weekend despite encouraging jobs data as the rising geopolitical tensions in Ukraine weighed on investor sentiment. Asian markets too were trading mostly in the red as sentiments were weighed down by report of a gauge of Chinese manufacturing contracting for a fourth month. HSBC/Markit gauge of China manufacturing dropped to 48.1 from a preliminary reading of 48.3.

Back home, on the sectoral front, oil and gas, FMCG and software witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while realty, power and consumer durables were the top losers on the BSE. The broader indices too were trading slightly in the green, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 820 shares on the gaining side against 659 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22440.00, up by 36.11 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 22545.18 and 22354.45.There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13% and Small cap index up by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.08%, FMCG up by 0.35%, PSU up by 0.15%, IT up by 0.08% and Bankex up by 0.01%, while Realty down by 0.68%, Power down by 0.43%, Consumer Durables down by 0.37%, Health Care down by 0.30% and Auto down by 0.11% were the losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 1.78%, RIL up by 1.42%, ITC up by 0.76%, ONGC up by 0.70% and SBI up by 0.30%. On the flip side, BHEL was down by 0.91%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.75%, Tata Motors  was down by 0.71%, Tata Power was down by 0.69% and Sun Pharma was down by 0.62% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, according to Nielsen global survey, consumer confidence level in India jumped six points to 121 in the first quarter of the current year as against 115 in the previous quarter, the highest optimism level since the fourth quarter of 2012. Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism respectively. India retains its position as the second most-optimistic country in the survey behind Indonesia with 124 points, while Philippines with 116 points stands at third place.

The Nielsen survey highlighted that 68 percent of the polled respondents in India are of the view that the economy is going through a recessionary phase and around 54 percent of respondents feels that the country will be out of this recessionary phase in the next 12 months. Despite the challenge of high inflation, consumers are hoping for a better fiscal year and optimistic that overall sentiment and investment will pick-up gradually. The survey indicated that there is a renewed focus on savings for the long term as the intention of online respondents investing spare cash in savings is up by six percentage points to 68 percent from last quarter. Around 32 percent of respondents want to invest in a retirement fund as comparison to 23 percent in Q4 of 2013. Further, about 36 percent intend to invest in the stock market and in mutual funds, up from 29 per cent in last quarter.

The survey further added that around 54 percent of online polled respondents are feels that this is a good time to buy things. 49 percent of polled respondents are looking to invest in new technology products and buy new clothes. Nearly 74 percent of the polled respondents in India are optimistic about job prospects over the next 12 months and the sentiment is up by 4 percentage points from the last quarter.

The latest round of survey was conducted during the period February 17-March 7, 2014. The Nielsen Global Survey, established in 2005, measure consumer confidence, major concerns and spending intentions among respondents.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,702.50 up by 7.70 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 6,732.05 and 6,680.45. There were 22 stocks advancing against 27 declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance up by 1.54%, BPCL up by 1.43%, Jindal Steel up by 1.17%, GAIL up by 1.13% and Indusind Bank up by 0.93%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 1.45%, BHEL down by 1.05%, Ultra cement down by 0.98%, ACC down by 0.83% and Lupin down by 0.83% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading  in red ; Shanghai Composite decreased by 0.73%, Hang Seng was down by 1.54%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.10%, KLSE Composite decreased 0.35%, Nikkei 225 was down by 0.19%, Straits Times was down by 0.16% and KOSPI slipped by 0.12%. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.32%.