Indian equities continue to trade firm

Indian equities continued to trade in fine fettle in the late morning session. Traders were seen piling up position in Auto, Realty and CG sector while selling was witnessed in FMCG, and Power sector. Meanwhile , Global rating agency, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has downgraded the credit rating outlook of Tata Power to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ due to high debt and rising expenditure at the 4,000 mw ultra mega project at Mundra. The widely followed NSE’s Nifty and BSE’s Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,200 and 17,400 levels respectively. Besides, all the Asian markets were trading in red, after Chinese trade data pointed to more signs of stress in the global economy.

The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1330:701 while 94 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,457.18 up  by 65.20 points or 0.37% after trading as high as 17,473.72 and as low as 17,424.29. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index up 0.61% while Small cap index was up 0.64%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Auto up by 1.03%, Realty up by 0.78%, CG up by 0.66%,CD up by 0.66% and HC up by 0.58%. While, FMCG down by 0.20% and Power down by 0.16% were the only losers on the index.

Tata Motors up by 1.79%, L&T up by 1.04%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.98%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.92% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.92% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Tata Power down by 1.13%, NTPC down by 0.75%, ITC down by 0.56%, Wipro down by 0.06% and Sterlite Industries down by 0.05% were the major losers in the index.

 Meanwhile, India’s import will rise faster than the exports in the next five years, even though it is trying its level best to keep the balance of trade on a positive track. Investment Banking Giant HSBC in its report stated that, ‘India's import growth will overtake its export growth in the next five years. The forecast is consistent with a developing global shift where traditionally export-driven emerging markets will become global trade hubs and important facilitators of international economic growth.’

According to the report, India’s import will rise at an average rate of 7% y-o-y for the next five years leaving behind the export, which is forecasted to be at 5%. However, as per the World Trade Organization, the country's exports grew 2.1% to $78.64 billion in the January-March period this year against the 21.8% growth in imports to $122.47 billion.

The slowdown in exports is mainly due to the worsening global economic conditions, whereas surging crude oil prices have made imports expensive. This has tightened the current account deficit, which is at its high of 4.3% for FY12 and also one of the reasons to the recent fall in rupee.

On the other hand, export to China will move up at an average of 8% till the year 2016, whereas imports will be up at 11%. Apart from this, exports to other emerging markets like Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia will grow around 11%, while those to Middle East and African nations like UAE and Nigeria will rise by 10%.   

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,294.50, up  by 19.35 points or 0.37% after trading as high as 5,298.00 and as low as 5,284.55. There were 37 stocks advancing against 11 declines while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were JP Associates up by 1.87%, Tata Motors up by 1.70%, Asian Paint up by 1.21%, LT by 1.13% and Hero Moto Co up by 1.07%. Tata Power down by 1.09%, IDFC down by 0.82%, NTPC down by 0.81%, ACC down by 0.57% and ITC down by 0.52% was the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 0.28%, Hang Seng index down by 0.13%, Jakarta Composite down 0.15%, Nikkei 225 down 0.36%,Kospi Composite Index down 0.58%, and Taiwan Weighted down 1.01% while Strait Times up 0.39% and KLSE Composite up 0.13%.