Markets continue positive trend; Metal stocks lead the rally

Following a firm start, Indian equity markets continued trading higher in the late morning session, after closing in the red for four consecutive sessions. Positive global cues such as US services sector expansion, which extended in January and a few corporate results, boosted market sentiments. Meanwhile, Investors were seen making some strong positions on optimism that the nation’s largest state asset sale in a year will attract more foreign capital, as Ministers approved an offering of government shares in NTPC. In currency markets, Indian rupee strengthened against dollar on continued selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. On sectoral front, all sectors were trading in green, except banking stocks, which is marginally down. In global markets, Asian shares recovered on Wednesday as solid euro zone data calmed nerves jarred by potential political turmoil in Spain and Italy. Back home, the market breadth was  favoring positive trend; there were 1430 shares on the gaining side against 940 shares on the losing side while 120 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19719.21 up by 59.39 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 19767.25 and 19692.91. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.47% and Small cap index was up by 0.58%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.23%, Consumer Durables up by 0.93%, Realty up by 0.85%, Oil & Gas up by 0.70% and TECk up by 0.52% while, Bankex down by 0.07% was the only loser on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 2.12%, Jindal Steel up by 1.96%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.74%, Tata Steel up by 1.53% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.41%.

On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.75%, NTPC down by 1.45%, HDFC Bank down by 0.75%, ICICI Bank down by 0.72%, and Cipla down by 0.66% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, disappointed over the seven percent cut in HRD Ministry's revised budget for this fiscal, Human Resource Department minister M M Pallam Raju has written a letter to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, terming the step as 'unjustified'.

In view of economic slowdown, the finance ministry, in last month, imposed cut of about seven percent in the Rs 45,000 crore school education and literacy budget to control expenditure. HRD minister, Raju especially highlighted the Rs 209 crore slash in funds allocated for the centrally-sponsored scheme of teacher education for the 2012-13 fiscal.  Moreover, budget for higher education sector has also been reduced by about 13 per cent, which had got Rs 15,458 crore, he added.

Demanding retention of the funds allocated for this scheme, he said that funds under this programme have been reduced from Rs 500 crore to Rs 292 crore. 'This appears unjustified as the revised scheme of teacher education was approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs in March 2012 and the revised guidelines and annual work format prepared after a nationwide consultation were circulated to all states'.

The minister mentioned that the reduction of the budget at revised estimate stage comes at a time when special effort is being made to revamp the teacher education system, which is critical to improve the quality of education. Further he said that the cut would hamper delivery of the scheme as the ministry would require more than the budget earmarked under it.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,977.20 up by 20.30 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 5,990.90 and 5,967.70. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 2.71%, HDFC up by 2.19%, UltraTech Cement up by 2.02%, Jindal Steel up by 1.90% and Sesa Goa up by 1.88%.

On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.71%, NTPC down by 1.35%, JP Associates down by 1.05%, Siemens down by 0.94% and Cipla down by 0.90%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng surged 0.81%, Jakarta Composite rose 0.28%, Nikkei 225 soared 3.62%, Taiwan Weighted added 0.25% and Straits Times up 0.09%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite dipped 0.03%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.89% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.06%.