Bourses hold the gains led by CD and CG stocks

Indian markets though have pared some of their early gains in the early noon session but were still rejoicing the dovish tone of the US Federal reserve, with Sensex and Nifty gaining over half a percent each. Meanwhile, traders were getting additional support with RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that the central bank is fully prepared to deal with any volatility in Indian markets, due to US Federal Reserve's policy action on interest rates, and normalcy will be ensured. He has said that India is much better prepared if Fed moves on rates. Back on street, not only the bluechips but the broader markets too were holding their gains. All the sectoral indices on the BSE were in green led by consumer durables and capital goods. The PSU stocks too were trading in green as the government firmed up a list of PSUs to be divested next fiscal, starting with BHEL in April, in a bid to meet the Rs 41,000-crore stake sale target for 2015-16.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28823.31, up by 201.19 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 28768.63 and 28978.74. 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 0.50%, while Small cap index gained 0.56%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.21%, Capital Goods up by 1.15%, Metal up by 0.94%, INFRA up by 0.59%, Bankex up by 0.57%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.07%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.56%, GAIL India up by 1.99%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.58% and ICICI Bank up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.29% and Reliance Industries down by 0.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, domestic natural gas prices are likely to be slashed by around 10 percent to $ 5.02 per unit from April 1, as compared to the current price of $5.61. On a gross-calorific value basis, the price will be around $4.67 per mmBtu as compared to $5.05 currently. The revised price from April 1 is arrived at by applying the Cabinet-approved formula on the select average global prices for the fuel between January and December 2014. The new government had in October 2014 used the new formula to fix price of almost all domestically produced natural gas at $5.61 per mmBtu for the period up to March 31.

There was a drop in prices at international gas hubs in the second half which led to the reduction in price - US Henry Hub dropped from $ 6 per mmBtu in February to $ 3.78 per mmBtu in October and from $ 10.72 per mmBtu on NBP in January to $ 6.40. The new price based on a net calorific value basis will be announced shortly and will be valid for the first half of 2015-16.

The CCEA on October 18 last year approved the formula, after tweaking the Rangarajan formula approved by the UPA government in June 2013. The price is to be revised every six months. Rates for next six months are to be decided based on one year average price at Henry Hub of US, National Balancing Point of UK, rates in Alberta (Canada) and Russia with a lag of one quarter.

This will be the first reduction in natural gas in India, though the current price of $ 5.61 per mmBtu is already among the lowest in Asia Pacific. China pays $ 11.9 per mmBtu rate for new projects, while Indonesia and the Philippines pays the explorer $ 11 and $ 10.5 respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8736.00, up by 50.10 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 8723.80 and 8788.20. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 3.42%, Tata Steel up by 3.13%, Asian Paints up by 2.68%, Sun Pharma Inds up by 2.64% and GAIL India up by 1.73%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 2.14%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.40%, BPCL down by 0.95%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.94% and PNB down by 0.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly in green, KOSPI Index was up by 9.44 points or 0.47% to 2,037.89, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 9.65 points or 0.54% to 1,807.22, Straits Times was higher by 12.63 points or 0.38% to 3,374.38, Jakarta Composite was up by 35.14 points or 0.65% to 5,448.29, Taiwan Weighted gained 83.3 points or 0.86% to 9,736.73 and Hang Seng surged by 202.8 points or 0.84% to 24,322.88.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 lost 67.92 points or 0.35% to 19,476.56 and Shanghai Composite was down by 23.66 points or 0.66% to 3,553.65.