Markets continue trading firm amid strong buying

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher since early trade on Wednesday amid some strong buying in few front line stocks. Investors were trading cautiously after rating agency - Fitch renewed ratings downgrade warning ahead of the reporting season. The 50-share NSE Nifty remained above the psychological level of 6,000 level, while 30-share BSE Sensex gained 56.95 points. In currency markets, rupee appreciated against dollar on Wednesday, amid continued foreign capital inflows. On sectoral front, automobile stocks were leading the rally, while shares from realty, healthcare, oil and capital goods sectors too were trading firm. A few stocks from consumer durables and FMCG stocks were trading slightly weak. In global markets, most Asian shares rose as investors resumed buying after taking profits from a sharp rally at the start of the year while cautiously bracing for corporate earnings season to kick off in full force. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,542 shares on the gaining side against 983 shares on the losing side while 119 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,799.47 up by 56.95 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 19,824.06 and 19,765.66. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.51% and Small cap index was up by 0.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.59%, Realty up by 1.02%, Health Care up by 0.68%, PSU up by 0.64% and Oil & Gas up by 0.60% while, FMCG down by 0.43% and CD down by 0.18% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.70%, Coal India up by 2.68%, Gail up by 1.50%, Cipla up by 1.32% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.12%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel was down by 1.19%, BHEL was down by 0.99%, HDFC was down by 0.91%, ITC was down by 0.86%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.80% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, confident of returning to a higher growth path on account of strong economic fundamentals backed by sound policies, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, new approaches would be needed to address challenges in infrastructure, education, energy, water and agriculture to sustain the annual growth rate of 8%.

In spite of domestic constraints and challenges, the government has taken a number of steps to boost domestic and foreign investment, accelerate project implementation and reform capital markets and the tax system. From an impressive average annual GDP growth rate of over 8% between 2004 and 2010, growth declined to 6.5% in 2011-2012 and may fall below 6% in the current year, Singh noted.

On economic development Singh said ‘this is an imperative for us because we need rapid growth and a healthy economy to meet the aspirations of an increasingly young India and make our economic development more inclusive and more sustainable.’ Despite continued focus on the rural area PM also stressed the need for paying greater attention to the expanding cities and towns.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,011.50 up by 9.80 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 6,020.10 and 6,005.20. There were 28 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index and one remains unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.81%, Coal India up by 2.50%, GAIL up by 1.44%, Cipla up by 1.20%, and Bharti Airtel up by 1.14%.

On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.21%, Tata Steel down by 1.20%, Ultra Tech Cement down by 1.07%, ITC down by 1.05%, and HDFC down by 0.99%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng increased 0.23%, KLSE Composite jumped 0.16%, Nikkei 225 surged 0.78%, Straits Times soared 0.41% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.22%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite down 0.04%, Jakarta Composite slipped 0.15% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.37%.