Benchmarks continue to trade steady on last day of quarter

Going from strength to strength, benchmark indices continued to maintain the strong momentum speculatively on some window dressing buying or buying of relative outperformers on the last day of the month and the quarter. Firmness in Asian stocks and fall in crude oil prices have also bolstered market sentiment. In the steady session of trade, rallying over 1%, while Sensex was trading above the crucial 25,350, Nifty was just shy of the crucial 7600 mark. Meanwhile, broader indices also mirroring the same kind of enthusiasm were up with gains of over 1.25%.

On the global front, Asian share markets edged cautiously higher on Monday ahead of packed week of economic data that will test investor hopes for a pick-up in the U.S. and global economies. Additionally, European shares got off to a positive start as investors hope the raft of U.S. and European macro data due in the week will soothe recent worries over the pace of economic growth.

Closer home, amidst across the board buying, while there were no losers, stocks from Capital Goods, Power and banking counters were the top gainers of the session. Meanwhile, Shares of PSU OMCs, BPCL, HPCL and IOC rose as crude oil prices edged lower. Brent futures dipped towards $113 a barrel on Monday, adding to last week's fall as fears of a disruption to supplies from Iraq eased after government forces launched a pushback against a Sunni militant takeover of large areas of the country. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1891:801; while 112 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25382.36, up by 282.44 points or 1.13% after trading in a range of 25179.55 and 25406.98. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.38%, while Small cap index was up by 1.29%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.33%, Power up by 2.37%, Bankex and PSU up by 2.09% and Realty up by 1.95%. While there were no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.79%, Tata Power up by 2.65%, L&T up by 2.51%, SBI up by 2.48% and ICICI Bank up by 2.13%. On the flip side, Hero Motocorp down by 0.29%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.19% and RIL down by 0.01% were the top losers on the BSE.

Meanwhile, steel Ministry has stated that country’s eastern region will witness large steel production capacity expansion in future with an investment of nearly Rs 9 lakh crore which will push India's steel capacity by an additional 160 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity in the next 10-15 years.

As per the steel ministry estimates, 16 new steel plants are set to come up in mineral-rich eastern states adding 42 mtpa new capacity in coming five years, another 45 mtpa in next five years and further 73 mtpa in about 15 years from now. State wise, 6 new plants are likely to come up in Odisha, 5 in Jharkhand, 4 in Chhattisgarh and one in West Bengal with a cumulative investment of Rs 8.92 lakh crore investments till 2030. A majority of the steel plants are located in the country’s eastern part mainly because of its rich raw material base and locational advantages.

India is world fourth largest steel maker behind China, Japan and the US with 100 mtpa steel production capacity now, up from 75 mtpa four years ago. The ministry has excluded confidence that India has potential to become a global leader both in production and consumption of steel. With Rs 12 lakh crore investment, including Rs 8.92 lakh crore in the eastern region could enhance the country’s total steel production to 300 MT by 2030.  Describing steel as an engine of growth, steel ministry has also pitched for infrastructure status for steel sector and sought for indigenization of design, manufacturing and erection of plants.

Ministry also highlighted the key concerns that are impeding growth such as decline in iron ore production, low priority in coal and gas allocation, delay in statutory clearances and infrastructure bottlenecks. Over the past four years, India’s steel production remained static at 81.2 MT in 2013, 77.3 MT 2012, 73.6 MT in 2011 and 69 MT in 2010 owing to the prevailing economic slowdown impacting domestic consumption.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,592.85 up by 84.05 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 7,531.60 and 7,604.05. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 3.52%, IDFC up by 3.51%, Sun Pharma up by 3.11%, PNB up by 3.02% and BPCL up by 2.83%. On the flip side, McDowell down by 3.43%, Maruti down by 0.68%, Hero Motocorp down by 0.32%, Reliance down by 0.23% and Lupin down by 0.01% were the losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Nikkei 225 up by 0.44%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.93%, Jakarta Stock Index up by 0.28%, and Shanghai Composite up by 0.44%. While, Straits Times down by 0.51% and Hang Seng down by 0.87% were the losers on the index.

European shares got off to positive start; with Germany’s DAX rising by 0.10%, CAC 40 index adding by 0.20% and FTSE 100 index gaining by 0.34%.