Markets continue positive trade; Realty stocks leading rally

Indian equity markets continued positive trade in the late morning session on Monday amid alternate bouts of buying and selling in front-line stocks. Investors were trading cautiously with no major trigger from on local front. The Sensex was up 39.53 points, while the Nifty gained 8.70 but fell below 5,900 level. In currency market, rupee continued its depreciating streak and touched one-month low against greenback on the back of dollar's gains against other currency rivals. On sectoral front, realty stocks were in demand mirroring strong gains posted by some top stocks in that space, while shares from PSU banking, oil, capital goods, power and healthcare sectors were among the other notable gainers. Information technology and consumer durables stocks were trading weak. In global markets, most Asian shares were trading higher, as Japanese market surged after revisiting four-year highs tapped recently, as the yen slumped after Tokyo dodged direct criticism from G20 peers on its aggressive reflation plans that have weakened the currency. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,372 shares on the gaining side against 989 shares on the losing side while 115 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,507.68, up by 39.53 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 19,533.36 and 19,462.92. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53% and Small cap index was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.00%, PSU up by 0.69%, Capital Goods up by 0.65%, Power up by 0.61% and Oil & Gas up by 0.55%. While, Consumer Durables down by 0.67%, IT down by 0.52%, TECk down by 0.38%, Metal down by 0.08% and FMCG down by 0.03% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.59%, HDFC up by 1.44%, L&T up by 0.92%, Tata Steel up by 0.89% and NTPC up by 0.80%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.90%, Jindal Steel down by 1.20%, TCS down by 1.10%, Tata Power down by 0.67% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.48% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the planning commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Indian economy would grow at a rate of between 5 and 5.5 percent in current fiscal and could expand by 7 per cent in 2013-14. In best case scenario the growth could climb to 5.5 percent for this fiscal and if there was strength in the recovery then many more signs would have been evident, Ahluwalia added.

The statement comes after the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) projected 5-percent economic growth this fiscal in its advance estimates released earlier this month. Baffled over the methodology of CSO in computing economic growth projections, Ahluwalia said that it has ignored the rising growth trend, while estimating the economic growth for current fiscal.

India’s economic growth in 2011-12 slipped to 6.2 percent from 9.3 percent a year ago mainly on the back of global economic slowdown and subdued investor sentiments. Gross domestic production (GDP) of the country grew by 5.5 percent in April-June quarter and further declined to 5.3 percent in July-September quarter.

While, the recent industrial production data, which reflects the health of the manufacturing sector, has also portrayed a dismal picture of sector as the factory output measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for December, 2012, has contracted by 0.6 percent for second straight month. Moreover, IIP declined by 0.8 percent in November 2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,896.10 up by 8.70 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 5,903.40 and 5,878.45. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 4.02%, JP Associates up by 2.16%, PowerGrid up by 1.61%, HUL up by 1.49% and HDFC up by 1.48%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.02%, Ultra Tech Cement down by 1.33%, Axis Bank down by 1.19%, Jindal Steel down by 1.19% and TCS down by 1.15%, were the major losers on the index.

Most Asian equity indices were trading higher; Shanghai Composite rose 0.43%, Jakarta Composite added 0.05%, Nikkei 225 soared 2.09, KOSPI Composite up by 0.04%, Straits Times up by 0.02% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.47%.

On the flip side, Hang Seng declined by 0.23% and KLSE Composite slipped by 0.23%.