Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive opening and are trading in the green terrain in early deals on Tuesday, supported by sustained foreign capital inflows and encouraging first quarter earnings posted by blue-chip companies coupled with a firm trend in other Asian markets. Moreover, positive economic factors, including progress in monsoon too supported the sentiments. Meanwhile, Iron and steel stocks remained on buyers’ radar, as the government has stated that iron ore production in the country is sufficient to meet the domestic demand and steel makers are not facing any shortage of the key input.

On the global front, the US markets despite late hour recovery ended modestly lower in last session, mainly due to geopolitical concerns, as the worries about further sanctions against Russia generated some negative sentiment. Most of the Asian markets were trading in the green with some of the indices once again moving towards a six-year high, reached earlier this month. Japanese market after a long weekend has taken the lead on weakness in yen.

Back home, there was broad-based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. Meanwhile, none of the sectoral indices were trading in the red, while infrastructure and consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade. Healthcare, realty, technology, metal, FMGC, auto and power too were trading significantly. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,254 shares on the gaining side against 576 shares on the losing side while 68 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 25784.48; around 70 point higher compared to its previous closing of 25715.17, and has touched a high and a low of 25855.41 and 25780.39 respectively. The index is currently trading at 25825.23, up by 110.06 points or 0.43%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 66.07% stocks advancing against 30.35% declines. The broader indices were trading in the green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.61% and 0.62% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Infrastructure up by 1.37%, Consumer Durables up by 1.03%, Healthcare up by 0.95%, Realty up by 0.90% and TECk up by 0.71%, while there was no loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.27%, Hindalco up by 1.42%, Coal India up by 1.40%, Sun Pharma up by 1.25% and Tata Power up by 0.91%. On the flip side, Wipro was down by 0.39%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.31%, Gail India was down by 0.25%, HDFC was down by 0.21% and Tata Steel was down by 0.10% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India and China are likely to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in Railways during the forthcoming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2014. China had already sent an advance team for cooperation in the construction and overhaul of the existing railway system across India.

The 22-member high-powered Chinese delegation headed by deputy administrator of National Railway Administration Zheng Jian also held a first round of consultations with the top brass of Central Railway. During the meeting, the issues like raising speed of trains on existing routes, training of heavy haul transportation and station development under strategic economic dialogue were discussed. China has built up a whole national network of bullet trains which run at a speed of 300 km per hour. If the MoU is signed between both countries, China will provide competitive equipment and technology to India for developing the bullet train network in the country.

The government during budget 2014-15 has announced an ambitious plan to have a Diamond Quadrilateral Network of high-speed rail connecting major metros and growth centres, besides setting up world-class stations among others. The Rail Budget also proposed to increase the speed of existing trains in select sectors up to 200 km per hour. Indian Railways is an important sector for India and has the potential to raise India's economic growth by over one percent. Therefore, it has become imperative to modernise, strengthen and expand the Indian railway network.

The CNX Nifty opened at 7,708.20; about 24 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 7,684.20, and has touched a high and a low of 7,723.10 and 7,704.80 respectively. The index is currently trading at 7,714.90, up by 30.70 points or 0.40%. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 5.35%, Lupin up by 1.76%, Coal India up by 1.61%, Asian Paints up by 1.41% and Hindalco up by 1.28%. On the flip side, MCDOWELL-N down by 0.45%, HCL Tech down by 0.39%, ICICI Bank down by 0.31%, Wipro down by 0.30% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.29% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Nikkei 225 spurted by 152.61 points or 1.00% to 15,368.32, Hang Seng gained 280.32 points or 1.20% to 23,667.46, KOSPI Index increased by 7.24 points or 0.36% to 2,025.74, Straits Times strengthened 0.91 points or 0.03% to 3,315.18, Shanghai Composite soared 19.82 points or 0.96% to 2,074.30, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI improved 1.09 points or 0.06% to 1,869.73 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 33.69 points or 0.36% to 9,474.66.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 16.16 points or 0.32% to 5,110.96.