Benchmarks continue to trade flat in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks pared early gains and were trading near neutral line with positive bias on account of profit booking by the traders and retail investors. Though most of major indices were trading in green, sharp selling witness in metal, auto and FMCG stocks dragged the markets down. However, gains in IT, teck and capital goods stocks have provided support to major indices. Factors like depreciation in rupee values against the dollar and FIIs outflow in the previous session weighed on sentiment. The broader markets were outperforming the benchmarks as both mid and small cap indices were trading up by around 0.55% and 1.27. Sentiment got some support as Finance Ministry has emphasized that despite some improvement on macro-economic front, it will still remain watchful for CAD as well as the rupee because global markets are still volatile. Investors were also seen piling up position in realty stocks amid reports that government would grant infrastructure status to low-cost housing segment, enabling real-estate developers to get finance from banks for long term.

ICRA surged around 16% to Rs 2320 after global rating agency Moody's raised its offer price to acquire additional stake in the company to Rs 2,400 from Rs 2,000. Shares of Bharat Forge were up around 3% at Rs 516 after the company reported robust fourth quarter earnings. On the other hand, shares of Thermax were down around 2% at Rs 889 after the company reported nearly 9% decline in net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. Shares of Jet Airways down by around 6.6% after the carrier posted a record quarterly loss for Q4 FY14.

On global front, major Asian equity indices were trading in green with Nikkei 225 up by 0.20% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.73%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 7,350 and 25,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,570 stocks traded, 1,552 stocks advanced, while 930 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24,556.08 up by 6.57 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 24,643.33 and 24,488.81. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.55%, while Small cap index up by 1.27%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.06%, IT up by 0.99%, Teck up by 0.88%, Realty up by 0.79% and Power up by 0.49%. While, Auto down by 1.21%, Metal down by 1.03%, FMCG down by 0.31% and Oil and Gas down by 0.27% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.07%, Tata Power up by 2.74%, HDFC Bank up by 1.93%, Hero Motocorp up by 1.55% and Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.38%. On the flip side, M&M down by 2.48%, Coal India up by 2.46%, Tata Motors down by 2.39%, ONGC down by 1.95% and Gail India down by 1.86%.

Meanwhile, India’s public debt decreased marginally to Rs 46,25,037 crore at end-March 2014 from Rs 46,29,689 crore at end December 2013. The public debt which excludes liabilities under the Public Account represented a decline of 0.1 percent QoQ in Q4 FY14 as compared to an increase of 3.1 percent in the previous quarter.

The Quarterly Report on Public Debt Management highlighted that marketable securities consisting of rupee denominated dated securities and treasury bills accounted for 83.3 percent of total public debt, almost same level as in the previous quarter. Internal debt, the fund a government borrows from its citizens, represented 91.1 percent of public debt as compared to 91 percent at the end of the previous quarter. The outstanding internal debt of the government stood at Rs 42,12,575 crore constituting 37.2 percent of GDP as compared to 38 percent at end-December 2013. The total volume of government securities transacted on an outright basis increased by of 18.32 percent over the preceding quarter, contributed mainly by central government dated securities. The report further added that during FY14, gross and net market borrowings were higher than previous year by 1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

The report highlighted that owing higher expenditure and lower revenue collections, revenue deficit and fiscal deficit during April-February 2013-14 at 117.3 percent and 114.3 percent of revised estimate were higher than 101.2 percent and 97.2 percent during the same period a year ago due to the India’s fiscal deficit is likely to contain at 4.5% of GDP in the financial year 14, as compared to 4.89% of GDP in the FY13.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,325.70 up by 7.70 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 7,344.75 and 7,302.60. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 4.26%, BHEL up by 3.07%, ACC up by 3.79%, HDFC Bank up by 1.93% and Hero Motocorp up by 1.55%. On the flip side, M&M down by 2.83%, Coal India down by 2.62%, BPCL down by 2.52%, Tata Motors down by 2.52% and Gail India down by 2.07% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Nikkei 225 up by 0.20% to 14,666.55,Taiwan Weighted up by 0.73% to 9,121.71, Shanghai Composite up by 0.58% to 2,046.17, Hang Seng up by 0.86% to 23,142.53, Jakarta Index up by 0.23% to 4,975.14 and Straits Times up by 0.05% to 3,275.81.