Indian equities add gains; railway stocks under pressure

Indian equities added gains to edge higher in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters but the gains remained intact as latest data showed inflation rose a faster-than-expected to 6.95% in February 2012. Traders were seen piling up positions in Capital Goods, Bankex and Power sector while selling was witnessed in IT, TECk and Realty sector. Lot of activity was visible in stocks which are linked to Indian Railways as Union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi presented the Railway Budget 2012-13 in the Lok Sabha today. Shares of companies like Container Corporation of India, Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail Nirman, Stone India, Hind Rectifiers, Kernex Microsystems and Texmaco were the counters where lot of activity took place. Tomorrow i.e. on March 15, 2012, a day before the presentation of the Union Budget 2012-13, the Reserve Bank of India is slated to announce a mid-quarter review of the monetary policy. Also, the data on advance tax for the last installment of March 15, 2012 may provide cues on Q4 March 2012 corporate earnings. On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green barring Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng while the European markets were too trading in green on optimistic note. The Euro-zone finance ministers approved a second bailout package for Greece in a meeting in Brussels yesterday. The country had completed a debt swap deal with its private creditors last week, a prerequisite for receiving the next tranche of aid worth 130 billion euro from the troika. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,450 and 17,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 1369:1407 while 132 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,924.87, up by 111.25 points or 0.62%. The index has touched a high and a low of 18,040.69 and 17,837.22 respectively. There were 23 stocks advancing against only 7 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were trading on a mix note; the BSE Mid cap index added 0.28% while Small cap index shed by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Captial Goods up by 1.89%, Bankex up by 1.62%, Power up by 1.29%, Auto up by 1.06% and PSU up by 1.04%. While, IT down by 0.65%, TECk down by 0.33%, Realty down by 0.29% and Oil & Gas down by 0.04% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 2.64%, NTPC up by 2.43%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.41%, M&M up by 2.38% and ICICI Bank up by 2.19%, while, TCS down by 3.55%, Wipro down by 1.36%, HDFC down by 0.86%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.64% and RIL down by 0.51% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India's wholesale price index quickened in the month of February after showing signs of moderating in last few months, putting the Indian Reserve Bank in a tight corner, a day ahead of its mid quarter monetary policy review in which it is now likely to abstain from resorting to any liquidity easing measures.

According to the data released by the ministry of commerce and industry, the annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, rose in the month of February to 6.95% as compared to 6.55% for the previous month and 9.54% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation in the financial year so far was 5.95% compared to a buildup of 8.66% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The index for primary articles group rose by 0.9% to 201.5 from 199.7 for the previous month, the index for fuel and power group rose by 0.2% to 173.2 from 172.8 for the previous month while the index for manufactured products group rose by 0.4% to 141.7 from 141.2 for the previous month.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,465.45, higher by 35.95 points or 0.66%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,499.40 and 5,437.80 respectively. There were 39 stocks advancing against just 11 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were PNB up by 3.63%, Axis Bank up by 3.06%, L&T up by 2.76%, NTPC up by 2.45% and ICICI Bank up by 2.26%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 3.52%, JP Associates down by 1.80%, Wipro down by 1.22%, HDFC down by 1.02% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.78% remained the top losers on the index.

Majority of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Jakarta Composite added 0.80%, KLSE Composite added 0.47%, Nikkei 225 advanced 1.53%, Straits Times shot up by 1.03%, Seoul Composite rose by 0.99% and Taiwan Weighted was up 1.17%, while Shanghai Composite lost 2.63% and Hang Seng dropped 0.15% remained the only losers. 

The European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 ascended 0.63%, Germany’s DAX jumped 0.66% while Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.27%.