Markets trade slightly in the green in early deals

Resuming their gaining streak, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading with modest gains in early deals on Monday as investors are focussing on the key events (Economic Survey, Railway Budget and Union Budget) along with the expiry of February series due later during the week. Some support also came in with report that, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 204.85 crore on Friday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

On the global front, the US markets made a green closing in last session with all the major averages surging to their record highs. Flash report of upbeat manufacturing sector boosted the sentiments of the market. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time, though some indices are marginally in red too but the Japanese market made a higher start, after eurozone ministers agreed to extend Greece's bailout by four months.

Back home, on the sectoral front, software, technology and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while consumer durables, realty and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in the green, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1229 shares on the gaining side against 784 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29295.97, up by 64.56 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 29250.26 and 29362.96. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index up by 0.66%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.61%, TECK up by 0.45%, Capital Goods up by 0.44%, Bankex up by 0.29% and FMCG up by 0.26% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.86%, Realty down by 0.72%, Oil & Gas down by 0.25%, Auto down by 0.25% and Infrastructure down by 0.19% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 1.49%, Hindalco up by 1.37%, Cipla up by 0.96%, Wipro up by 0.88% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.79%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.49%, Tata Steel down by 1.20%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.87%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.81% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved eleven proposals of foreign direct investment (FDI) amounting to Rs 1075.91 crore. The approvals include Solar Arise India projects involving FDI of Rs 216.01 crore, SeQuent Scientific, Mumbai involving FDI of upto Rs 400 crore and proposal of BLP Wind Assets Holding for an amount of Rs 371 crore for setting up a joint venture firm for making downstream investments in the renewable energy sector. Also, JP Morgan Asset Management (Asia) Inc USA has got approval for the acquisition of remaining 25 per cent held by JP Morgan India in the joint venture set up in 2006 by the two companies, entailing investment up to Rs 80.13 crore.

On the other hand the board sent two proposals relating to Aurobindo Pharma, Hyderabad and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Mumbai for consideration of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to raise the cap of foreign institutional investor (FII) holding to 49 per cent, from 35.07 per cent at present. The investment involved in each of the proposal is above Rs 1,200 crore.

FIPB rejected foreign investment application of Johnson and Johnson proposal seeking deletion of the standard pharma conditions, stipulated in the approved letter and proposal of Singapore-based AppDynamics Asia Pacific Pte for replacing of partners of the proposed LLP, as the existing have tendered their resignation.

Recently, the government has eased the procedures for companies seeking approval for foreign direct investment; they can now e-file a single copy application with the FIPB. The applicants would also get SMS/email alerts related to the queries raised by the administrative ministries, inclusion of the proposal in the scheduled FIPB meeting and decisions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8842.20, up by 8.60 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 8838.90 and 8869.00. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sesa Sterlite up by 1.52%, Hindalco up by 1.31%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.06%, BPCL up by 0.89% and Wipro up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.83%, DLF down by 2.48%, Lupin down by 1.86%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.51% and GAIL India down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets trade mostly in the green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 0.95 points or 0.05% to 1,808.82, Straits Times increased 3.41 points or 0.1% to 3,439.07, KOSPI Index gained 7.15 points or 0.36% to 1,968.60 and Nikkei 225 was up by 101.29 points or 0.55% to 18,433.59.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 7.87 points or 0.15% to 5,392.23 and Hang Seng was up by 7.06 points or 0.03% to 24,825.02.