Indian equities pare gains in the late afternoon session

Indian equities pare gains but continued its firm trade in green in the late afternoon session as investors lacked conviction to pile up fresh positions. Traders were seen piling up position in IT, TECk and Power sector while selling was witnessed in Capital goods, Realty and Auto sector. The positive sentiments can be attributed to the IT sector, which pulled the markets higher after the better than expected numbers of sector heavyweight TCS, which was trading up by over 12%, the company’s profit were reported higher by 19% for the quarter, while the full year standalone profit surged by 45%.

However, there was heavy selling pressure seen in the telecom stocks as the TRAI proposed a near tenfold increase in the price of 2G spectrum as compared to 3G. But, justifying the prices set for spectrum allocation, TRAI Chairman J S Sarma said that the recommendations are aimed at liberalising spectrum and enabling operators to take up any technology. The market may remain volatile this week as traders roll over positions from the near-month April 2012 series to next-month May 2012 series. The April 2012 derivatives contracts expire on Thursday, April 26, 2012. In the scrip specific development, agrochemical makers United Phosphorus and Excel Crop Care were seen trading weak in red on reports that the Competition Commission of India has found them guilty of cartelization and price manipulations.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading on a mix note while the European markets were trading in green on optimistic note. On the home turf, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,200 and 17,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1181:1337 while 132 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,174.71 up by 78.03 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 17,231.74 and 17,046.72 respectively. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a negative note; the BSE Mid cap index sank 0.22% while Small cap shed 0.17%.

On the BSE sectoral space, IT up by 4.67%, TECk up by 3.00%, Power up by 0.51%, PSU up by 0.36% and Consumer Durables up by 0.34% were the major gainers, while Capital Goods down by 1.00%, Realty down by 0.61%, Auto down by 0.51%, Health Care down by 0.38% and Bankex down by 0.35% were the top laggards in the space.

TCS up by 12.15%, Wipro up by 3.32%, Coal India up by 1.78%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.77% and Tata Power up by 1.76% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Bharti Airtel down by 2.73%, DLF down by 2.57%, L&T down by 2.28%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.22% and M&M down by 1.31% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs M Veerappa Moily has expressed his hope that the much-awaited new Companies Bill, which seeks to replace the Companies Act 1956, will be passed in the current session of Parliament. The new Companies Bill seeks to give a boost to the cause of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance. The bill will also make it mandatory for firms to maintain their documents in electronic format.

The new Companies Bill also introduces the concept of e-governance, makes provision for encouraging ethical corporate behaviour and rewards employees for their integrity. It also aims at boosting investment and making business easy in the country. It seeks to create an environment which is conducive to enterprise and growth of entrepreneurship.  The number of companies in the country has grown from 30,000 in 1956 to nearly 9 lakhs now and the government is keen to provide companies a non-cumbersome, customer friendly and transparent regulatory environment.

As per Moily, a draft policy on National Corporate Governance is on its way and is expected to be submitted within six months period.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,210.45, up by 9.85 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 5,232.35 and 5,180.35. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were TCS up by 11.83%, HCL Tech up by 4.23%, Wipro up by 3.41%, Tata Power up by 2.21% and BPCL up by 1.98%.

On the other hand, Ambuja Cements down by 4.28%, Kotak Bank down by 2.81%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.70%, DLF down by 2.57% and ACC down by 2.44% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian markets were showing mixed trend, Shanghai Composite was marginally up by 0.01%, Hang Seng gained 0.26%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.13%, Straits Times added 0.40% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.24%. On the flip side, KLSE Composite shed 0.20%, Nikkei 225 was down by 0.78% and Seoul Composite lost 0.47%.

The European markets were trading in green with, France’s CAC 40 was up by 0.98%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.89% and Britain’s FTSE 100 rose by 0.59%.