Benchmarks continue volatile trade in green

Indian markets are showing volatile trend above the neutral line in the late morning session of trade. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red on the back of downbeat data on China’s manufacturing sector. Economic reports from Japan and South Korea too were disappointing. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in IT, TECk and Auto sector while selling was witnessed in Metal , Bankex and Power sector. Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HCL Tech, CORE Education & Technologies and Tech Mahindra from IT pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Moto Corp, Maruti Suzuki and Bosch from Auto pack were seen trading firm in green. Metal majors - Tata Steel, Coal India, Jindal Steel, Hindalco Industries, Sterlite Industries and JSW Steel were capping the markets’ gains while Bankex majors ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bank of Baroda too were pressurizing the markets.

In the scrip specific development, Essar Oil rose on entering into tie-up with GSPC to commission CNG facility. Tata Global Beverages edged higher as its JV plans to open first store in India. IL&FS Transportation Networks jumped as its consortium bags order worth Rs 2,100 crore. Cera Sanitaryware surged on plan to invest Rs 140 crore in manufacturing facility at Gujarat. Maruti Suzuki gained on reporting 9.84% growth in total sales for September at 93988 units as against 85565 units in the same month last year.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,700 and 18,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1403:763.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18782.46 up by 19.72 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 18822.15 and 18759.19. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.70% and Small cap index was up by 0.81%.

On the BSE sectoral space, IT up by 1.17%, TECk up by 1.02%, Auto up by 0.87%, HC up by 0.39% and FMCG up by 0.25% were the top gainers. While, Metal down by 0.63%, Bankex down by 0.45%, Power down by 0.42%, Realty down by 0.41% and CG down by 0.21% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.83%, Infosys up by 1.65%, Tata Motors up by 1.61%, TCS up by 0.85% and Gail India up by 0.68%. On the other hand, Tata Steel down by 1.46%, Tata Power down by 1.08%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.00%, ICICI Bank down by 1.00% and Jindal Steel down by 0.89% was only the loser on the Sensex.

 Meanwhile, Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has asked the Fertiliser Ministry for a status report on the revival of closed or sick urea plants and the proposed New Urea Investment Policy. This decision follows the PMO asking Department of Fertilisers last week to submit an updated brief on the status of possibilities for investing in fertiliser assets in foreign countries.

The government had announced a 'New Investment Policy' in 2008 to boost urea production, but the scheme failed to attract fresh investments and in February this year, a Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Pranab Mukherjee, the then Finance Minister, had approved a new investment policy for the urea sector. The GoM later had suggested some changes in the new policy, following which it has been put up for inter-ministerial consultations, after that it will be sent for the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). It is expected that with the implementation of the investment policy, the country will become self sufficient in manufacturing urea in the next five years.

Recently, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has given the nod for revival of three closed urea units of the Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCIL) through joint venture/special purpose vehicle (SPV) route by the nominated state-run firms. The Talcher unit in Odisha will be revamped by Coal India and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF), the Sindri unit in Jharkhand by the Steel Authority of India and National Fertilizers, and the Ramagundam unit in Andhra Pradesh by Engineers India and National Fertilisers.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,706.40, up by 3.10 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 5,715.60 and 5,696.00. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 3.47%, JP Associates up by 2.07%, Maruti up by 1.84%, Infosys up by 1.58% and Tata Motors was up by 1.53%. While, IDFC down by 1.55%, Tata Steel down by 1.32%, Power Grid down by 1.24%, ICICI Bank down by 1.10% and Kotak Bank down by 1.06% were the losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Jakarta Composite was down by 0.65%, Nikkei 225 down by 1.12%, Straits Times down by 0.41% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.68%. On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 0.17%.

Markets in China, Hong Kong and South Korea are closed today for holidays.