Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals on firm global cues

Extending their winning streak for fourth straight session, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Friday on supportive global cues. The US markets made a positive close in last session lifting the Nasdaq to its best closing level in almost fifteen years, on Ukraine ceasefire after a marathon peace talks involving the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time on news of a ceasefire accord in Ukraine, though the Japanese market opened lower, with export-oriented stocks getting dragged down by stronger yen.

Back home, some support also came in with the government stating that it has collected Rs 4.27 lakh crore, or 68.6 percent of budget target for indirect tax, in the April-January period of this fiscal. The budget target for indirect tax collections is Rs 6.23 lakh crore. Meanwhile, retail inflation inched up in January but hovered within the central bank’s comfort levels. CPI inflation with changed base year came at 5.1% in January, compared to previous month’s 4.3%. On the other hand, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth was subdued at 1.7% year on year (yoy) in December compared with 3.9% in November on slow growth in mining and electricity segments.

On the sectoral front, healthcare, realty and consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while oil and gas, power and public sector undertaking remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1246 shares on the gaining side against 722 shares on the losing side while 60 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28906.52, up by 101.42 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 28835.70 and 28955.03. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.61%, while Small cap index up by 0.63%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 2.09%, Realty up by 1.39%, Consumer Durables up by 1.06%, Metal up by 0.85% and IT up by 0.59% while, Oil & Gas down by 0.26%, Power down by 0.18%, PSU down by 0.15% and Infrastructure down by 0.12% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.59%, Cipla up by 2.57%, SBI up by 1.37%, Hindalco up by 1.34% and Sesa Sterlite up by 1.20%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.19%, ONGC down by 1.67%, GAIL India down by 1.05%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.85% and Tata Motors down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence survey has stated that India is the second most optimistic nation among the Asia Pacific Region after Myanmar. India scored 91.6 in the index which is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic and 100 as the most optimistic, while Myanmar's score was 97.2. The Index is based on a survey conducted between October-November last year and covered 8,235 respondents aged 18 - 64 in 16 countries across Asia Pacific.

The survey tracks five major indicators - employment, economy, regular income, stock market and quality of life. Among these parameters, India rated the highest in its outlook toward employment prospects with a score of 93.5 points in the second half compared to 88.5 points recorded in the first half of the calendar year 2014. Overall, in the first half of 2014, India figured in the very optimistic range with a total score of 89.1.

Citywise Bengaluru topped the list as India's most optimistic city with a score of 98.1 followed by Delhi with 97.3 points and Mumbai with 87.2. Further, the study noted that the women of the country have a more confident stance on the economic outlook with a score of 91.9, 0.6 points ahead of men.

The overall sentiment in Asia witnessed a drop with the consumer confidence index score at 65.5 points down from 68.3 Index points in the first half of 2014. Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong saw a steep decline in consumer confidence at 33.8, 34.2 and 40.9 respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8754.65, up by 43.10 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 8729.65 and 8766.80. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 3.82%, Cipla up by 2.76%, Sun Pharma up by 2.63%, DLF up by 2.55% and Ultratech Cement up by 2.30%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.10%, ONGC down by 1.78%, GAIL India down by 1.06%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.91% and Tata Motors down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Straits Times rose 3.77 points or 0.11% to 3,422.94, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 5.47 points or 0.31% to 1,794.54, KOSPI Index increased 10.53 points or 0.54% to 1,952.16, Jakarta Composite added 29.98 points or 0.56% to 5,373.40, Taiwan Weighted advanced 36.1 points or 0.38% to 9,532.41, Shanghai Composite surged 49.75 points or 1.57% to 3,223.17 and Hang Seng was up by 219.26 points or 0.9% to 24,641.41. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was down by 109.33 points or 0.61% to 17,870.39.