Indian equity markets add gains to trade firm; Nifty above 5,900 mark

Indian equity markets added gains to continue firm trade above neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters. Investors have started eyeing data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which will unveil industrial production for December 2012 on February 12, providing further direction for the market. Traders were seen piling some position in Realty, Health Care and Consumer Durables sectors while selling was witnessed in Capital Goods, TECk and IT sector. The sentiments on the street turned pessimistic after data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed that local car sales in India fell 12% from a year earlier in January to 173,420 units compared to 198,079 units in the same month of 2012. In the scrip specific development, Sadbhav Engineering was trading in red after net profit of the company fell by 91% year-on-year to Rs 3.7 crore in the third quarter of financial year 2012-13 due to fall in revenues and high interest cost. Non-banking finance company, SKS Microfinance was locked at 10% upper circuit limit after the company completed two highest rated A1+(SO) securitization transactions worth Rs 390 crore.

On the global front, majority of the Asian markets were closed barring Jakarta Composite which was trading in green while the European markets were trading on mixed note.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,900 and 19,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1227:1461 while 135 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,494.48 up by 9.71 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 19,543.44 and 19,416.94. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.01% and Small cap index was down by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.24%, Health Care up by 0.79%, Consumer Durables up by 0.52%, Metal up by 0.42% and PSU up by 0.33% while, Capital Goods down by 0.51%, TECk down by 0.27%, IT down by 0.25% and FMCG down by 0.07% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 3.39%, Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 2.54%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.27%, Hindalco Industries up 2.14% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.14%.

On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.58%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.56%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.99%, L&T down by 0.95% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.89% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, domestic LPG and payouts, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREG), will soon be brought under direct benefit transfer (DBT), also known as direct cash transfer. DBT will allow transfer of LPG subsidy into the bank account of connection holder using the UIDAI (the authority which issues Aadhaar number) platform. As per the present rule, for September-March, 2012-13, five subsidized cylinders is allowed, while, it will be nine cylinders for full financial year from April 1. Currently, the price of subsidized domestic LPG cylinder is Rs 410.50.

DBT for LPG would be introduced from March 15 or by April 1 in 20 districts (4 in Andhra Pradesh, 3 each in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, 2 each in Delhi and Daman & Diu and one each in Punjab, Chandigarh and Pondicherry). These are the same 20 districts where DBT was launched for seven schemes on January 1 this year and are also among the 43 districts in 16 states which have been identified for introduction of DBT in the first phase to be completed by March 1.  

Regarding the need of Aadhaar cards for all beneficiaries, the government has clarified that credit in a bank account will take place and withdrawals will be allowed from the same too, even if such an account is not linked with Aadhaar. Meanwhile, the Aadhaar cards are yet to be issued to all the beneficiaries. Oil marketing companies also claimed that they are ready to be part of the new system. 

Moreover, all the post offices in rural areas have been asked by the government to get lists of beneficiaries and also the micro biometric ATMs by June 1, 2013. Further, the Rural Development Ministry is also pushing for allowing post office saving accounts, which were opened for wage payment to be used for all these purposes.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,907.35, up by 3.85 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 5,924.15 and 5,879.10. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 3.53%, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories up by 2.79%, Axis Bank up by 2.24%, Tata Motors up by 2.12% and Ultratech Cement up 2.09%.

On the flip side, IDFC down by 2.35%, ACC down by 1.74%, ONGC down by 1.72%, HCL Tech down by 1.69% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.43% were the major losers on the index.

Majority of bourses in Asia remained shuttered for the Lunar New Year, except Jakarta Composite was up 0.15%. Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia are all closed. Malaysia will reopen on February 12, Hong Kong and Singapore will resume trading on February 13 and Taiwan will reopen on February 14.

The European markets were trading mixed; France’s CAC 40 added 0.27%, Germany’s DAX slip 0.09% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.10%.