Markets trade quite ahead of key earnings results of RIL

The Indian equity markets witnessing seesaw trade in tight range and currently trading flat in positive territory amid alternate bouts of buying and selling in front line stocks. BSE Sensex and Nifty were flat on weak global cues and ahead of key earnings results of Reliance Industries on Friday. On sectoral front automobile and healthcare stocks were attracting buyers. Select information technology and consumer durables stocks have moved up. Oil, FMCG and bank stocks are mostly trading flat, while power, realty and capital goods stocks were a bit weak. On the global front, Asian stocks fell as bad loans were a cause of concern in Spain. Both Spain and France plan to raise $17.5 billion in debt today as they struggle to meet the fiscal deficit targets. Japanese stocks also fell as investors awaited bond auction in Spain and France. Back home, the market breadth favoring the positive trend; there were 1,311 shares on the gaining side against 1,110 shares on the losing side while 116 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,408.58, up by 16.19 points or 0.09%. The index has touched a high and low of 17,448.44 and 17,361.71 respectively. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices continued to show resilience; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading up by 0.21% and 0.19% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.21%, HC up by 0.76%, IT up by 0.47%, TECk up by 0.35% and CD up by 0.04%. While, CG down by 1.10%, Realty down by 0.79%, Power down by 0.66%, Bankex down by 0.30% and Oil & Gas down by 0.26% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.67%, Tata Motors up by 1.91%, Coal India up by 1.60%, Tata Power up by 1.55% and HDFC Bank up by 1.51%.

On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.99%, Hindalco down by 1.84%, ICICI bank down by 1.34%, SBI down by 1.11% and L&T down by 1.09%% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has increased by a whopping 74% to $2.21 billion in February as compared to the same month last year. This has taken the total FDI for the period April- February 2011-12 to $24.8 billion, which is substantially higher than $19.42 billion in 2010-11, and $25.83 billion in 2009-10.

Services sector received the largest share of $5.05 billion followed by pharmaceuticals $3.21 billion and telecom $1.99 billion. The other major beneficiaries were construction $2.52 billion, power $1.61 billion and metallurgical industries $1.76 billion.

Experts are of the opinion that there is even more scope to increase the FDI if the government goes through its economic reforms of allowing 100% FDI in sectors like multi-brand retail and insurance. They are of the opinion that $2 billion is not a large amount and India can do much better.

Mauritius remained the top source of inflows with investments of $9.42 billion, thanks to the double taxation avoidance treaty. Other sources were Singapore ($5.07 billion), Japan ($2.86 billion), UK ($2.75 billion), Germany ($1.54 billion), Netherlands ($1.21 billion) and Cyprus ($1.42 billion).

Recently, the government has rationalized the procedure to enhance foreign investment into the country and also allowed FIIs to invest up to 23% in commodity exchanges without seeking its prior approval.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,303.75, up by 3.75 points or 0.07%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,320.65 and 5,291.30 respectively. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.51%, Tata Motors up by 1.86%, Coal India up by 1.78%, Tata Power up by 1.55% and Ranbaxy up by 1.43%.

On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.24%, Reliance Infra down by 2.34%, JP Associates down by 2.13%, Hindalco down by 1.99% and RCOM down by 1.38%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined by 0.08%, Jakarta Composite shed 0.36%, KLSE Composite slid 0.17%, Nikkei 225 descended by 0.82%, Seoul Composite surrendered 0.23% and Straits Times capitulated by 0.03%

On the flip side, Hang Seng up by 0.28% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.23% were only gainers on the index.