Indian equities continue firm trade; Sensex holds 19,000 mark

Indian equities trimmed gains but continued its firm trade in green in the late afternoon session on back of buying in frontline counters. The market sentiments is on optimistic note as the Union Cabinet will be considering a proposal today to allow increase in foreign investment ceiling in the insurance sector and opening the pension sector to overseas investors. Traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Consumer Durables and Bankex sector while selling was witnessed in Health Care and IT sector. In the scrip specific development, Kingfisher Airlines is trading in lower circuit limit as the talks between the airline company and pilots and engineers in Delhi had ended in failure. Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies were both trading in red after HSBC Securities and Capital Markets downgraded both the company to neutral from overweight. Raymond is trading under pressure on reports that its plan to sell 9.4 acres of Thane land failed as developer backed out. Yes Bank was trading in green after hitting its 52-week high as the global financial services firm Morgan Stanley has added the bank to its focus list. Engineers India is trading in green on hopes that government may sell its stake in the company.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green while the European markets were trading on a pessimistic note. European Central Bank president Mario Draghi is waiting for Spain to get back to him on whether his plan to save the euro is needed. Besides, the European Union’s top banking regulator told the bloc’s lenders to hold on to more than 200 billion euros ($258 billion) in capital raised to pave the way for tougher global standards. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,750 and 19,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1688:1131 while 119 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,059.49 up by 189.80 points or 1.01% after trading in a range of 19,107.04 and 18,939.75. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.56% and Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, Realty up by 4.28%, Consumer Durables up by 2.53%, Bankex up by 1.99%, Power up by 1.77% and Capital Goods up by 1.53. While, Health Care down by 0.77% and IT down by 0.28% were the only losers on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 6.21%, ICICI Bank up by 3.33%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.00%, SBI up by 1.94% and Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.92%. On the other hand, Cipla down by 2.49%, M&M down by 1.32%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.08%, Coal India down by 0.99% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.85% were top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, despite strong reform measures to attract more investments into the country amid slowing economic growth, the quarter-two 2012 registered a decline in fresh investment proposals, the sixth consecutive quarter of decline, with 293 new investment proposals amounting Rs 57,400 lakh crore compared to 735 projects worth Rs 2, 37,500 crore in previous quarter same year and previous year same quarter’s 931 projects worth Rs 2, 32,800 crore. Sectors such as mining and electricity witnessed a drop in fresh investments during the quarter under review.

Nearly 612 projects worth of about Rs 7.75 lakh crore, has been paused in Q2 2012, while in 2011 Q2, it was 474 projects worth Rs 4.74 lakh crore. The September quarter however, saw an increase of 5% in total quantum of investment with Rs 142 lakh crore from 18,348 projects, with respect to its previous year September quarter’s Rs 135 lakh crore across 18,870 projects.

Approval for the commencement of fresh projects during Q2 also slowed down by 47%, worth of about Rs 42,600 crore, putting a record of the poorest achievement since September 2007 quarter. Even though, only 104 fresh proposals amounting  Rs 37,200 crore were stalled in Q2 2012, with respect to a year-ago level of  137 projects of worth Rs 1.98 lakh crore.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,786.65, up by 55.40 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 5,807.25 and 5,751.35. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 6.04%, DLF up by 4.65%, BPCL up by 4.44%, ICICI Bank up by 3.33% and JP Associates up by 2.80%. While, Lupin down by 3.30%, Cipla down by 2.41%, M&M down by 1.22%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.19% and Coal India down by 1.15% were top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Straits Times was up by 0.02%, Hang Seng was up by 0.09%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.40%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.64%, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.89%. While, Kospi Composite was down by 0.17% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.03%. Markets in China remained closed today for holiday.

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 dropped by 0.15%, Germany’s DAX inched lower 0.22% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 lost 0.22%.