Benchmarks continue firm trade led by realty and metals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in the early noon session amid buying in realty, metal, consumer durables, PSU and teck stocks. Besides, short-covering by participants due to November series expiry in the derivatives contracts, too was supporting the markets. Sentiment got upbeat after Prime Minister Narendra called for a collective effort to make the two Houses function smoothly and ensure passage of important legislations, including the goods and services tax bill. Some support also came with the report that India's crude oil import bill is likely to dip by 35 per cent to $73 billion this fiscal as global energy prices slumped on weak demand. At present, both sensex and nifty were trading above the crucial 25,900 and 7,850 levels, respectively.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, on fresh European stimulus even as new data reinforced expectations for tighter U.S. monetary policy. Back home, the broader markets were outperforming the larger peers with BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices trading up by 0.38% and 0.64%, respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2449 stocks traded, 1517 stocks advanced, while 752 stocks declined on the BSE.

In scrip specific development, share of Lumax Auto Technologies was trading up by around 10% after the company entered into Joint Venture (JV) agreement with SIPAL S.p.A of Italy (part of the Turin based euro 240 million FININC S.p.A. group) to enter into the Indian aerospace and defence sector.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25921.07, up by 145.33 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 25769.81 and 25960.28. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.37%, while Small cap index gained 0.62%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.20%, Metal up by 1.37%, Consumer Durables up by 1.08%, PSU up by 0.91% and TECK up by 0.74%, while there were no losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma Inds. up by 3.54%, Tata Motors up by 2.33%, Coal India up by 2.17%, Hindalco up by 1.56% and ICICI Bank up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 6.69%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.06%, GAIL India down by 0.41%, Lupin down by 0.34% and TCS down by 0.34% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that his ministry is aiming to add 2 per cent to country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in two years by road sector, by shipping, inland water ways and automobile industry. Further, stressing on the importance of creation of jobs, he said that his agenda is to create 50 lakh jobs in five years. He said that his ministry wants to make this industry of international standards and wants to change rules and regulation for same.

Advocating adapting technology of international standards, Gadkari said, 'we are ready to accept any modern new technology, and an expert committee has been constituted to submit a report after studying things at various countries'.

Further, Gadkari said that there is 22 per cent shortage of drivers and his ministry is going to open new scheme for training of drivers. He said that there is a need for skilled manpower with the addition of new technology and innovation to the sector. Furthermore he said “By training the manpower in India we can encourage employment potential. This is one of the targets of my ministry and policy of our government”.

In this regard a workshop has been conducted in Delhi and they are going to start the scheme from June adding that it is a plan of five years, for Rs 5,000 crore. Highlighting various projects undertaken by his department, he said they have also decided to make our roads green.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7872.50, up by 40.90 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 7832.00 and 7885.65. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.70%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.86%, Tata Motors up by 2.44%, Coal India up by 2.14% and Hindalco up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 6.69%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.99%, Bosch down by 0.79%, HCL Tech. down by 0.74% and Cairn India down by 0.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.34 points or 0.02% to 1,684.76, Shanghai Composite increased 12.51 points or 0.34% to 3,660.44, KOSPI Index increased 23.32 points or 1.16% to 2,032.74, Jakarta Composite increased 27.89 points or 0.61% to 4,613.43, Nikkei 225 increased 95.41 points or 0.48% to 19,942.99, Taiwan Weighted increased 98.77 points or 1.18% to 8,484.90 and Hang Seng increased 177.2 points or 0.79% to 22,675.20.