Benchmarks trade slightly in the green

Extending their previous session's northward journey, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading slightly in the green in early deals on Wednesday. Sentiments remained supportive on report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 48.02 crore on June 17, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. However, gains remained capped amid reports that drought-like conditions have developed in large parts of the country as the monsoon deficit has widened to a worrying 49% since the start of the season on June 1.

On the global front, the US markets rose for the third straight day despite the brewing tension in Middle East and the International Monetary Fund trimming 2014 US economic growth forecast to 2% from 2.8%. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red terrain at this point of time ahead of the Federal Reserve monetary policy decision. The Chinese market was marginally in red after country’s house prices fell in 35 cities in May.

Back home, on the sectoral front, healthcare, metal and infrastructure witnessed the maximum gains in trade, while software and fast moving consumer goods remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices however were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1358 shares on the gaining side against 551 shares on the losing side while 60 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 25565.19; around 44 point higher compared to its previous closing of 25521.19, and has touched a high and a low of 25578.17 and 25490.56 respectively. The index is currently trading at 25574.43, up by 53.24 points or 0.21%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 68.97% stocks advancing against 28.98% declines. The broader indices too were trading in the green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.95% and 1.96% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, while Healthcare up by 1.30%, Metal up by 1.26%, Infrastructure up by 1.16%, Realty up by 1.08% and PSU up by 1.05%, while IT down by 0.28% and FMCG down by 0.26% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 5.85%, SSLT up by 1.81%, GAIL up by 1.79%, Hindalco up by 1.48% and ONGC up by 1.38%. On the flip side, TCS was down by 1.01%, ITC was down by 0.68%, Wipro was down by 0.62%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.60% and Bajaj Auto was down by 0.47% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure sound growth and orderly development of Indian pension market, pension funds regulator PFRDA has introduced new set of draft regulations for intermediary institutions. PFRDA has notified four regulations to govern and regulate the pension industry under the New Pension System (NPS). These norms deal with regulation for custodians, trustee bank, enquiry investigation appeal and adjudication and regulation for centralised record keeping agencies.

PFRDA has stated that the four norms would ensure an effective and credible use of inspection, surveillance and enforcement powers, investigation and implementation of an efficient compliance programme in tune with the spirit of PFRDA Act. Further, the pension fund regulator will also explore market-based solutions under the NPS based on contributory system for securing and protecting the old-age pension for citizens of the country. The watchdog has invited public comments on the draft regulations by July 15.

Pension funds regulator PFRDA has been taking various measure to develop Indian pension market as nearly 26 crore of the 32 crore of the country’s working population is working in unorganized/informal sector. Presently, these workers are not taking benefits of pension system. Meanwhile, PFRDA has set target to increase the current number of subscribers under new pension scheme from 68.48 lakh to cross 1.50 crore by FY15. It also wants to increase the size of the corpus, which is currently at about Rs.56,000 crore, to cross the mark of Rs.1,50,000 crore by the end of this fiscal.

The CNX Nifty opened at 7,636.05; about 5 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 7,631.70, and has touched a high and a low of 7,651.60 and 7,620.25 respectively. The index is currently trading at 7,648.05, up by 16.35 points or 0.21%. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 6.20%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.40%, SSLT up by 1.95%, GAIL up by 1.76% and Power Grid up by 1.61%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.09%, McDowell down by 1.03%, Wipro down by 0.72%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.69% and ITC down by 0.68% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng decreased by 10.80 points or 0.05% to 23,192.79, KOSPI Index slipped 9.10 points or 0.45% to 1,992.45, Jakarta Composite declined 8.90 points or 0.18% to 4,900.62, Shanghai Composite tumbled by 10.35 points or 0.50% to 2,056.35 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.43 points or 0.08% to 1,873.17.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 spurted by 113.27 points or 0.76% to 15,089.24 and Straits Times was up by 4.85 points or 0.15% to 3,279.29.