Indian equities continue firm trade in the late afternoon session

Indian equities added gains to continue its firm trade in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Investors at large have now shifted their focus towards the RBI's quarterly monetary policy review meet scheduled in April, hoping that the central bank would employ some liquidity easing measures to stimulate economic growth. Traders were seen piling up position in Consumer Durables, Power and Realty sector while selling was witnessed in Health Care sector. Meanwhile, investors shrugged the manufacturing PMI numbers for March which showed the expansion of India's factory sector slowed for the third month as growth in new orders eased and costs for raw materials kept rising. DLF from Realty counter was seen trading firm in green with gain of around more than three and half percent pulling the markets higher. Reliance Power, NTPC, Tata Power and Power Grid from Power sector were seen trading firm pushing the markets higher. In the scrip specific development, shares of power sector lenders like Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation were trading firm in green on reports that Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) announced a 37% hike in the power tariff, covering both domestic and industry sectors, a move that will fetch an additional Rs 7,874 crore and bail out the state electricity board which is in the red. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group companies like Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Reliance Mediaworks and Reliance Broadcast Network were seen trading firm in green.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green barring Hang Seng and Taiwan Weighted while the European markets were trading on a mix note. On the home turf, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,300 and 17,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was in favor of advances in the ratio of 1859:785 while 87 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,492.25 up by 88.05 points or 0.51% after trading as high as 17,529.98 and as low as 17,382.38. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.04% while Small cap soared 1.53%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Consumer Durables up 3.81%, Power up 1.91%, Realty up 1.87%, Capital Goods up 1.67% and PSU up 0.91% were the major gainers, while Health Care down 0.08% was the only laggard in the space.

DLF up 3.30%, NTPC up 2.18%, Mahindra & Mahindra up 1.99%, L&T up 1.77% and TCS up 1.62% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Bajaj Auto down 1.66%, HUL down 1.20%, Sterlite Industries down 0.99%, Coal India down 0.76% and Infosys down 0.34% were the top losers in the index.

Meanwhile, slowing down to a three months low, India’s export registered a meager 4.2% increase year-on-year in the month of February and stood at $24.6 billion. In sharp contrast, imports grew at a faster rate of 20.6% year-on-year and stood at $39.7 billion.  With imports growing more than exports, the trade deficit ballooned to $15.1 billion. The growth in exports has largely been affected by the global downturn and it is now expected that the country’s exports would be around $292-298 billion during 2011-12. Imports on the other hand have continued to grow thanks to the rise in global oil prices.

Looking at the cumulative figures, for April-February FY’12, exports totaled $267.4 billion compared to $220.2 billion in the year-ago period. On the other hand, total imports during the first eleven months of this fiscal stood at $434.1 billion compared to $335.5 billion in the corresponding period last year. As a result, the trade deficit stood at $166.7 billion during the April-February period of this fiscal. India's trade deficit for the 2011-12 financial year that ended on March 31, is likely touch $175-180 billion from an earlier estimate of $160 billion.

Oil imports grew by a whopping 39.4% to $12.65 billion in February 2012 from $9 billion in the same period last year. Cumulative growth in oil imports stood at $132.5 billion, 41% higher than the oil imports of $94 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Non-oil imports, considered to be an indicator of growth activity in the country, were estimated at $27.1 million during February, 2012 which was 13.50% higher than non-oil imports of $23.8 billion in February, 2011. Non-oil imports during April-February, 2011-12 were valued at $301.5 billion which was 24.89% higher than the level of such imports valued at $241.4 billion in April-February, 2010-11.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,317.70, higher by 22.15 points or 0.42% after trading as high as 5,331.55 and as low as 5,278.80. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Reliance Infrastructure up 4.48%, DLF up 3.57%, Reliance Power up 2.99%, JP Associates up 2.69% and NTPC up 2.27%.

Ranbaxy down 2.90%, BPCL down 1.75%, Bajaj Auto down 1.71%, ACC down 1.41% and HUL down 1.24% were the major losers on the index.

In the Asian space, Jakarta Composite advanced 0.87%, KLSE Composite rose 0.44%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.26%, Straits Times added 0.42% and Seoul Composite climbed 0.76%. On the other hand, Hang Seng declined 0.16% and Taiwan Weighted sank 0.88%.

Meanwhile, markets in mainland China will remain closed for a three day public holiday starting Monday on account of Qingming Festival and will re-open on Thursday.

The European markets were trading on mix note, as France’s CAC 40 lost 0.60%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.68% and Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.61%.