Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Wednesday as investors opted to buy beaten down but fundamental strong stocks after two sessions of drubbing. Some support came in with report that India’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed considerably to $8.2 billion or 1.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) for the quarter ended December 2014 down from $10.1 billion or 2% of GDP on end-September 2014.

On the global front, the US markets after a day of recovery, once again suffered sharp sell-off in last session on concerns about the outlook for interest rates and strength in dollar, which jumped to a twelve-year high versus the euro. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red at this point of time on worries about an earlier US interest rate hike that led the dollar to a record high against the euro.

Back home, on the sectoral front, software, technology and fast moving consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while metal, healthcare and public sector undertaking remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1109 shares on the gaining side against 762 shares on the losing side while 70 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28787.04, up by 77.17 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 28714.13 and 28815.95. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.23%, while Small cap index up by 0.39%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.96%, TECK up by 0.76%, FMCG up by 0.67%, Consumer Durables up by 0.49% and Power up by 0.44% while, Metal down by 0.72%, Healthcare down by 0.53% and PSU down by 0.33% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.62%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.45%, Infosys up by 1.22%, GAIL India up by 1.20% and HDFC up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.18%, Coal India down by 1.17%, Cipla down by 1.00%, ONGC down by 0.94% and Hindalco down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in an encouraging development for the sector, earnings of Railways during April 2014-Feburary 2015 have surged by 12.93% at Rs 1,42,358.27 crore compared to Rs 1,26,064.06 crore during the same period last year, according to Railway Ministry data. However, the total numbers of passengers booked during April 2014-February 2015 slid by 2.12% at 7,546.49 million compared to 7,709.62 million during the same period last year.

Further the Ministry has pointed that the earnings from freight during the April-February period were Rs 96,613.19 crore compared to Rs 85,666.65 crore during the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile, the earnings from passenger traffic too rose by 14.73% during this period were Rs 38,726.74 crore compared to Rs 33,755.50 crore during the same period last year. Lastly, the earnings from other coaching rose by 5.81% at Rs 3,682.44 crore during the 11-month period compared to Rs 3,480.33 crore last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8738.10, up by 26.05 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 8714.15 and 8745.40. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.93%, Wipro up by 1.89%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.44%, Infosys up by 1.40% and GAIL India up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 1.99%, Lupin down by 1.50%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.39%, NMDC down by 1.23% and Coal India down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng slipped 49.59 points or 0.21% to 23,847.39, Jakarta Composite declined 48.14 points or 0.88% to 5,414.79, Straits Times decreased 16.73 points or 0.49% to 3,381.53, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 9.25 points or 0.52% to 1,780.48 and KOSPI Index was down by 6.02 points or 0.3% to 1,978.75. Shanghai Composite rose 9.83 points or 0.3% to 3,295.90, Taiwan Weighted increased 13.65 points or 0.14% to 9,550.18 and Nikkei 225 was up by 149.47 points or 0.8% to 18,814.58.