Markets pare more gains as decision on Pension Bill gets deferred

Benchmark indices have pared some more gains in the late morning trade, though still maintaining gains of over half a percent. There is not much from the most awaited AGM of Reliance Industries as the Chairman has been highlighting the business investment in retail and has said that the company is reinvesting cash flows in new projects, which will fuel growth over the next few years. Meanwhile, the Asian markets too have started losing traction and weighed on the sentiments of the domestic markets. Though, the prime minister’s re-energizing effort of the infra sector is still keeping the realty sector in the bullish mood and the gauge has added another over a percent in day’s trade, closely followed by oil & gas and commodities stocks. However, there is some profit booking in the consumer durables sector that has been flying high in last some trades. Meanwhile, in a setback to reform measures, the Union Cabinet has deferred the decision on Pension Bill.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,568.64, up by 114.34 points or 0.69%. The index has touched a high 16,621.32 and low 16,533.21 of respectively. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favor of advances in the ratio of 1265:870, while 103 shares remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid-cap index was up by 0.44%, while Small-cap index was up by 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.26%, Oil and Gas up by 1.08%, Bankex up by 0.89%, Metal up by 0.86%, and Auto up by 0.46% while, CD down by 0.69%  were only loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 2.46%, Infosys up by 2.08%, RIL up by 1.96%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.91 and DLF up by 1.78%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.48%, Wipro down by 0.86%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.55%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.45% and ITC down by 0.17% remained the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to improve global investment sentiment and counter perceptions that the government is in policy paralysis, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called upon a meeting of key infrastructure ministries and set ambitious targets as he rooted for infrastructure led economic recovery. After the meeting with ministers of power, railways, roads, shipping, civil aviation and coal, Manmohan Singh set an investment target of at least Rs 2 lakh crore for core sector projects in the current fiscal.

Though he admitted that after achieving remarkably fast growth rates in the last decade and emerging as the second-fastest growing large economy in the world, the economy ran out of steam because of global economic and geo-political turbulences. However, Prime Minister remained hopeful that Asia’s third largest economy would revert back to high growth trajectory of 9 percent expansion rate.

Monmohan Singh also opined that the government was not only aware of the challenges that are faced by the economy, but it is also taking crucial efforts to bolster the economy by creating an atmosphere which is conducive to investment and to removing any bottlenecks to growth. He also stated that there is need to revive business and investor sentiment and give a thrust to investment, both public and private.

He also vowed to remove the supply constraints that affect industry and trade. Emphasizing that India requires investment of over $1 trillion in infrastructure in next five years, he explained that government would not be able to invest this huge amount and hence high importance is being given to Public- Private-Partnerships (PPPs).

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,022.00, up by 24.90 points or 0.50%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,042.60 and 5,013.05 respectively. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 declines while 1 remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sterlite Industries up by 2.35%, DLF up by 1.94%, Cairn up by 1.88%, Hero Moto Co up by 1.84% and Maruti up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.78%, Power Grid down by 1.69%, TCS down by 1.36%, Ranbaxy down by 1.21%, and HCL Tech down by 1.17% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the green; Jakarta Composite up 0.17%, Straits Times Index up 0.05%, Taiwan Weighted up 0.34%, Nikkei 225 up 1.24%, KLSE Composite up 0.45%, KOSPI Composite Index up 2.56% and Hang Seng Index was up 0.90%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined by 0.33%.