Indian equity relinquish some more gains; trade continues in green

Indian equity markets, despite losing additional ground, continue to trade above neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of sustained buying in Realty, Auto and Capital Goods sectors. Nevertheless, selling in PSU, Health Care and Power sectors, is weighing on the bourses’ gains. Oil marketing companies, HPCL and Indian Oil Corporation, which gained on expectations of a diesel price hike announcement as early as this week after the government last month allowed companies to raise prices, were now trading deeper in red terrain. In other scrip specific movement, Crompton Greaves was trading in green after Goldman Sachs retained its buy rating on the company and added the stock to its Asia-Pacific Conviction List. Cummins India rose as the research firm Macquarie maintained an outperform rating on the stock.

However, Index heavyweights and also country’s top power equipment maker, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), was trading under pressure as the global investment firms reduced target price following weak Q3 results. Indian Bank was trading in red after the bank’s third quarter net profit fell by 37 percent year-on-year to Rs 331 crore due to jump in non-performing assets. Bank of Baroda stocks too were adding to the pressure by trading with a cut of over 7% after reporting Q3FY13 numbers which declined by 21.58% at Rs 1011.62 crore as against Rs 1289.85 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green barring, KOSPI Composite and Hang Seng, while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,000 and 19,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1214:1481 while 135 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,813.13, up by 31.94 points or 0.16%, after trading in a range of 19,902.60 and 19805.31. There were 11 stocks advancing against 18 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices dived deeper into red; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.40% and 0.21% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 0.65%, Auto up by 0.56%, Capital Goods up by 0.11% and Bankex was up by 0.05%. While, PSU down by 1.03%, Health Care down by 0.96%, Power down by 0.70%, Oil & Gas down by 0.45% and Metal down by 0.45% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.37%, HDFC up by 2.49%, ICICI Bank up by 1.71%, Jindal Steel up by 1.29% and HDFC Bank up by 1.07%.

On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.91%, ONGC down by 1.86%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.79%, BHEL down by 1.75% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.73% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, expressing the need to cut the government subsidies, the finance minister P Chidambaram has said that freebies and subsidies alone would not help in economic development and youth should seek self-employment. While inaugurating 17 branches of REPCO Bank in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, P. Chidambaram said 'If a country needs to grow, its people stand on their feet and see a strong economic growth, it cannot depend on freebies and subsidies alone.

Chidambaram said that it is the responsibility of the government to create jobs or self-employment for its youth and the UPA Government has a clear vision of creating jobs for its youth. By adding further he said that there are some hurdles for job creation like, if a bank opens a branch then some people thinks that public will be made debtors. But there is nothing wrong in taking loan for creating business and self- employment.

Regarding self employment, the finance minister, while extending loan for youths who have started a Self-Help group (SHG), said that youth should form more SHGs and the country where the people are self employed have the better prospect of being strong country. So, the youth should choose a self employment path and continue in that without any fear, having strong faith in their path of self development and self employment.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,005.05, up by 6.15 points or 0.10%, after trading in a range of 6,038.50 and 6,000.45. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.44%, UltraTech Cement up by 2.82%, HDFC up by 2.58% DLF up by 2.05%, and Asian Paints up by 1.79%.

On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 7.00%, IDFC down by 4.14%, Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 2.06%, Cipla down by 2.03% and ONGC down by 1.99% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.38%, KLSE Composite increased 0.26%, Nikkei added 0.62%, Straits Times jumped 0.27%, Taiwan Weighted surged by 0.86% and Jakarta Composite too gained 0.11%.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite down by 0.23% and Hang Seng slipped 0.16% were the losers amongst the Asian pack.

The European markets were trading in red with; France’s CAC 40 lost 0.06%, Germany’s DAX descended 0.09% while the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged lower by 0.29%.