Benchmarks trade firm on supportive global cues

Indian benchmarks- Sensex, Nifty were trading over 0.40% in the late morning session on firm global cues. Sentiments bolstered after US stocks rose to five-year high on Friday on upbeat jobs and manufacturing data. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green point of time supported by firm manufacturing data from China and Europe. Back home, the traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Auto and Consumer Durables while selling was seen in Health Care, Power and FMCG sectors. IT stocks were trading in green on positive economic data in US, the biggest outsourcing market for the Indian IT firms. In scrip specific development, Hero MotoCorp gained on reporting total sales rose 7% to 5.57 lakh units in January 2013 over January 2012.Oil India surged after the government raised $585 million through a share sale in state explorer on Friday. UltraTech Cements soared on report to purchase an incomplete 6.7-million-tonne cement plant in Gujarat owned by ABG Cement (ABGCL). Indian Bank was trading under pressure after reporting a 37% drop in net profit for the December quarter.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 6,000 and 19,800 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was positive; advances: declines in the ratio of 1245:751.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19870.26 up by 89.07 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 19902.60 and 19847.81. 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 0.32% and Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.53%, Auto up by 1.06%, Consumer Durables up by 0.85%, Bankex up by 0.69% and TECk up by 0.58%. While, Health Care down by 0.57%, Power down by 0.26%, FMCG down by 0.17% and PSU down by 0.13% and were the losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.93%, ICICI Bank up by 1.80%, HDFC up by 1.71%, TCS up by 1.23% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.06%.

On the flip side, Cipla was down by 1.87%, BHEL was down by 1.49%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.38%, Tata Power was down by 0.78% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.69% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, to bring down inflation on a sustained basis, the Reserve Bank (RBI) has expressed the need of policy interventions on several fronts. RBI executive director Deepak Mohanty said 'it is important to aim for nutritional security not only to harness the demographic dividend stemming from our sizable young population but also to contain food prices. This will require addressing the supply-demand imbalance in the agricultural sector and modernising the supply chain.'

While, wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation declined to 7.18% in December from 7.74% over the same period a year ago. But still it is much above the comfort level of RBI. The apex bank’s technical assessment has also suggested that the threshold level of inflation for India is in the range of 4 to 6% and if inflation persists beyond this level, then it could lower economic growth over the medium-term.   RBI executive director stressed the need of depth financial markets as well as calibrating monetary policy with growth-inflation dynamics. He said that to ensure industrial capacity utilisation and productivity improvement India needs to have a reliable power supply as well as availability of industrial raw materials, which will reduce reliance on imports of products for which domestic capacity exists and will moderate inflation. By adding further he said that maintaining the exchange rate stability is important to cushion transmission of international price pressures in commodities, particularly crude oil. 'This will require management of the current account in our balance of payments with the rest of the world at sustainable levels'.  

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,025.15 up by 26.25 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 6,038.50 and 6,019.10. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.19%, UltraTech Cement up by 3.06%, DLF up by 2.44%, Asian Paints up by 2.00% and ICICI Bank up by 1.82%.

On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.09%, IDFC down by 1.58%, BHEL down by 1.40%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.31% and Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 1.28% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 14.10 points or 0.58% to 2,433.12, Hang Seng surged 104.87 points or 0.44% to 23,826.71, KLSE Composite increased 6.25 points or 0.38% to 1,633.80, Nikkei 225 soared 59.09 points or 0.53% to 11,251.20, Straits Times jumped 19.54 points or 0.59% to 3,310.81 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 63.96 points or 0.80% to 7,919.17.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite was down by 0.17 points or 0.01% to 1,957.62 and Jakarta Composite down by 0.63 points or 0.01% to 4,481.01.