Benchmarks continue firm trade; Nifty holds 7700 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters and taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on optimistic mood after global rating agency Fitch stated that India’s economic growth will accelerate to 5.5% in the FY15. Fitch also revised the growth rate upward to 6.5% in FY16 from 6% projected earlier. Traders were seen piling up positions in India Infrastructure Index, Metal and Capital Goods while selling was witnessed in IT sector stocks. In scrip specific development, IVRCL, the Hyderabad-based construction and infrastructure company, are locked at upper circuit limit after the board of directors of the company approved proposal for implementing debt recast package. Apollo Hospitals Enterprises was trading in green after foreign brokerage firm raised its price target for the company with a buy rating on the stock. Castrol India was trading firm since its promoter Castrol Plc is exploring options to delist its India subsidiary.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets traded mostly on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,700 and 25,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1812:1130 while 105 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25788.21, up by 271.86 points or 1.07% after trading in a range of 25828.11 and 25660.16. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.76%, while Small cap index up by 1.04%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were India Infrastructure Index up by 1.87%, Metal up by 1.71%, Capital Goods up by 1.40%, Power up by 1.39% and Auto up by 1.38%. On the flip side, IT down by 0.06% was the lone losing index on BSE.    

The top gainers on the Sensex were SSLT up by 3.26%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.65%, NTPC up by 1.84%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.75% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Gail India down 0.35% and Infosys down by 0.16%.

Meanwhile, the Food Ministry has pitched for approval to end the subsidy for raw sugar exports one year earlier. Food ministry has stated that the scheme is being availed only by a few sugar mills and therefore it has moved a note to cabinet to suspend the sugar export incentive scheme by September 2014.

Food Ministry further added that sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh are not getting benefited from the scheme despite the fact that sugarcane arrears are highest at Rs 7,200 crore in the state. Further, many mills have not shown adequate interest in the scheme as they had exported major quantity of sugar before the launch of the scheme in February.

In February 2014, the government has started the scheme to give a subsidy for export of raw sugar up to 4 million tonnes during 2013-14 and 2014-15 marketing years (October-September). As per the notification, the subsidy will be calculated every two months after taking into account the average exchange rate of rupee vis-a-vis the dollar. The government had fixed Rs 3,300 per tonne for February-March and Rs 2,277 per tonne for April-May, taking into account the dollar-rupee fluctuation. The new government had set the export subsidy at Rs 3,300 per tonne for June-July.

India is world's second largest sugar producer and biggest consumer of sugar. India’s sugar production is likely to be at 23.8 million tonnes in 2013-14, as against 25.1 million tonnes in the last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,713.10, up by 78.40 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 7,723.55 and 7,677.30. There were 43 stocks advancing against 6 declining while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SSLT up by 3.39%, McDowell-N up by 2.96%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.79%, NTPC up by 2.23% and Lupin up by 1.89%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 1.26%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.66%, Gail India down by 0.44%, Asian Paints down by 0.31% and Infosys down by 0.18% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Nikkei 225 up by 0.29%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.46%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.44%, Straits Times up by 0.60%, Hand Seng up by 1.55% and Jakarta Stock Index up by 0.02%.

The European markets were trading mostly in green; Germany’s DAX added 0.30%, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.22% while, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.03%.