Benchmarks hold early gains; CG, Power lead

Indian equities continued to trade in fine fettle on back of strong buying in frontline counters in the late morning session. On the global front, the majority of Asian markets were trading in green at this point of time supported by the gains in commodity stocks; however data from China and Europe to the US raised concern about global growth. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in CG, Power and Metal sector. L&T, BHEL, Siemens, Crompton Greaves and ABB from CG, pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. NTPC, Power Grid Corp, Tata Power, Reliance Infra and Reliance Power from Power pack were seen trading firm in green.

Meanwhile, retail and aviation stocks like Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers Stop, Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Spicejet all edged higher after the government braved intense political opposition to notify rules for allowing foreign retailers such as Walmart and Carrefour to set up stores in India on Thursday.

In the scrip specific development, Jubilant Life Sciences gained on receiving USFDA approvals for 4 Dosage Formulations. Raj Television edged higher on entering into content hosting services agreement with Google Ireland. Zee Entertainment Enterprises rose on launching ‘Zee Bangla Cinema’. Kotak Mahindra Bank surged on plans to expand NRI customer base in Kerala. Vakrangee Softwares jumped as its arm bagged financial inclusion project from BOB.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5600 and 18,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1644:498.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18626.58 up by 277.33 points or 1.51% after touching a high of 18627.93 and low of 18411.20. All the 30 stocks on the Sensex were in green.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.37% and Small cap index was up by 1.30%.

On the BSE sectoral space, CG up by 2.70%, Power up by 2.53%, Metal up by 2.07%, Bankex up by 2.05% and Realty down by 1.78% were the gainers. While, there was no loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.94%, Sterlite Industries up by 3.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.06%, ICICI Bank up by 2.94% and L&T up by 2.75%. On the flip side, there was loser on the Sensex. 

 Meanwhile, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has reduced the import duty on gold bars to 4% from 10%, a development which will promote jewellery exports. CBEC has trimmed down the import duty on gold bars, gold coins having gold content not below 99.5% and gold findings, other than imports of such goods through post, courier or baggage. Gold findings are small component such as hook, clasp, clamp, pin, catch, screw back used to hold the whole or a part of a piece of jewellery in place.

The government decision to reduce the import duty on gold findings has been accepted gladly by Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) as the high duty on findings had portrayed an adverse effect on the total export of jewellery from the country. Gems and Jewellery exports stood at 14% of the total exports earnings of the country.

The import duty on gold findings has been rising over the last two years. The price was increased on January 16, 2012, from Rs.750 per 10 grams to 5% which was afterward raised to 10% in the Union Budget 2012-13 Union Budget.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,644.60, up by 90.35 points or 1.63% after trading in a range of 5,645.90 and 5,575.45. There were 49 stocks advancing against one stock on the decline side on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Infra up by 4.96%, BHEL up by 4.81%, JP Associates up by 4.00%, Axis Bank up by 3.85% and Sesa Goa by 3.77%. On the flip side there was no loser on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were trading in green; Nikkei 225 up by 0.61%, Hang Seng index up by 0.89%, Taiwan Weighted up 0.27%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.52%, Straits Times up by 0.54% and Kospi Composite Index up by 0.57% while  KLSE Composite down by 0.03% and Jakarta Composite down by 0.17% were the losers.