Benchmarks witness firm trade; Nifty holds 5,400 level

The Indian equity markets slightly shed from the high point of the day but still holding the major gains amid sustained buying across the board. The BSE Sensex stayed strongly higher, supported by 26 out of 30 stocks while the NSE Nifty continued to hold 5,400 level. On the sectoral front, realty stocks were in demand on expectations of a pick-up in demand for homes following a sharp reduction in CRR. However the investor’s optimism of cut in repo rate has diminished a bit on the back of a fairly good industrial production report. Metal, power, oil, capital goods and PSU stocks were also mostly trading higher. On the global front, Asian shares were trading in green. Back home, the market breadth favoring the positive trend; there were 1,606 shares on the gaining side against 903 shares on the losing side while 133 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,802.16, up by 214.49 points or 1.22%. The index has touched a high and a low of 17,833.81 and 17,680.23 respectively. There were 26 stocks advancing against only 4 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were trading in fine fettle; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices spurted by 1.16% and 0.97% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 2.93%, Power up by 2.06%, Realty up by 2.01%, Oil & Gas up by 1.71% and Capital Goods up by 1.69%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 4.58%, Jindal Steel up by 4.39%, Gail India up by 3.30%, BHEL up by 3.00% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.89%. Meanwhile, Wipro down by 1.11%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.93%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.30% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.03% were top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Indian economy is showing strong signs of recovery along with Russia. China on the other hand is heading towards slower economic growth, as per the Paris based think tank - the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The OECD which is a grouping of over 30 nations that account for more than 60% of global economic output,  bases its readings on Composite Lead Indicators (CLI) which indicate turning points in economic activities. In January, India's CLI rose to 102.1 from 101.9 in December 2011 indicating an increase in economic activity.

In fact as per OECD, most of the developed economies are showing positive change in momentum, but the trend is stronger in India and Russia. However, the CLIs for China and Brazil continue to point to below-trend growth. The US and Japan continue to drive the overall position but 'stronger, albeit tentative, signals are beginning to emerge within all other major OECD economies and the Euro area as a whole', as per the think tank.

The readings have come in at a time when fears of the Indian economy slowing down are looming large. Even official estimates are pegging GDP growth at 6.9% for the current fiscal. Growth for the next fiscal is also expected to be around the 7-7.5% mark. The World Bank has also recently cautioned that downside risks to Indian economic growth remain high.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,422.90, higher by 63.35 points or 1.18%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,435.95 and 5,390.80 respectively. There were 45 stocks advancing against just 5 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SAIL up by 4.93%, Jindal Steel up by 4.44%, Sterlite Industries up by 4.40%, Sesa Goa up by 4.40% and Ambuja Cements up by 3.72%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.23%, HCL Tech down by 1.17%, M&M down by 1.10%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.21% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.19% remained the only losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng gained 1.00%, Jakarta Composite added 0.26%, KLSE Composite also added 0.14%, Nikkei 225 spurted by 0.09%, Straits Times rose 0.77%, Seoul Composite surged by 1.13% and Taiwan Weighted firmed up by 1.31%.