Benchmarks witness consolidation ahead of Budget session of Parliament

Indian markets after two straight sessions of impressive rally appeared in a consolidation mood on Wednesday. Though, the global cues remained jubilant but traders opted to take some breather ahead of the Budget session of Parliament which will start from February 21, 2013. Nevertheless, markets managed to keep their head above water led by oil & gas sector which remained the top gainer, led by rally in index heavy weight Reliance Industries (RIL) after the company announced its joint venture with BP plans to invest more than $5 billion in the next three-five years to boost gas output in the KG D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

Sentiments also got some boost after investors continued to pile up position in infrastructure related stocks after Finance Minister P Chidambaram called for more innovative financing solutions for sector to encourage greater private participation in investment of infrastructure sector. For 12th five year plan (2012-2017), investments in the infrastructure sector has been pegged at around $1 trillion and the share of private participation in the total investment in infrastructure is projected at 47 per cent.

Supportive cues from Asian markets also provided the much needed support to local markets after an improving global economic outlook boosted world equities overnight, encouraging investors to take on risk. Investors’ morale got buttressed after widely watched ZEW economic institute investor confidence index in Germany soared to 48.2 points in February from 31.5 points in January, its highest level since April 2010. However, disappointing cues from European market capped gains of Indian markets up to certain extent as investors resorted to profit booking following muted opening in European counters.

Back home, stocks of technology and software counters too remained on the buyers’ radar while, shares of three state owned oil marketing companies BPCL, HPCL and IOC also edged higher on renewed buying after they raised diesel prices by 45 paise a litre and petrol by Rs 1.50 per litre with effect from February 16, 2013. However, the gains in software and technology stocks were offset by selling pressure seen in telecom stocks which traded lower for second consecutive session after Department of Telecom (DoT) decided to auction 900 mhz spectrum as planned earlier. On the same time, several sugar stocks like Balrampur Chini, Triveni Engineering and Rana Sugars dipped into red. High cost of production and low realisation is likely to pull down operating profit of sugar companies during the ongoing season 2012-13 (October-September).

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose by just three points to end above the psychological 5,900 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex rose by eight points to finish above the psychological 19,600 mark. Moreover, broader markets too traded near their pre-close level during the trade and ended the session mixed.

The overall volumes stood above Rs 1.28 lakh crore, which remained on the lower side as compared to that on Tuesday. The market breadth remained in favor of advances as there were 1,152 shares on the gaining side against 963 shares on the losing side while 862 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 7.03 points or 0.04% to settle at 19,642.75, while the S&P CNX Nifty rose by 3.35 points or 0.06% to end at 5,943.05.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 19,742.42 and 19,619.89, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index down by 0.17% and Small cap index was up by 0.36%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were, Reliance up by 3.13%, Sun Pharma up by 1.37%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.26%, Coal India up by 1.12% and Gail India up by 0.99%, while Tata Steel down by 1.75%, Jindal Steel down by 1.47%, Cipla down by 1.32%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.04% and SBI down by 0.98% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the BSE Sectoral space were Oil & Gas up 1.70%, Realty up 0.77%, IT up 0.60% and TECk up 0.29%, while Consumer Durables (CD) down 1.37%, Metal down 0.61%, Capital Goods down 0.47%, FMCG down 0.47% and Bankex down 0.38% were top losers on the sectoral space.

Meanwhile, to encourage greater private participation in investment of infrastructure sector, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has called for more innovative financing solutions for sector. For 12th five year plan (2012-2017), investments in the infrastructure sector has been pegged at around $1 trillion and the share of private participation in the total investment in infrastructure is projected at 47%.

During the launch of India Infra Debt, India's first infrastructure debt fund under a non-banking finance company structure, finance minister said 'to mobilize the resources of this tune many more institutions are required to share this responsibility. Promoters of Infra Debt should provide sound management to make these projects successful'. The $2-billion fund, India Infra Debt is promoted by Bank of Baroda, Citibank, ICICI Bank and LIC and will finance its first project by the end of the current fiscal.

Infra Debt has identified infrastructure projects, which have completed minimum one year of operation, whereas the government has already set up a cabinet committee with PM as its head for infrastructure investments to expedite approval and clearances of projects.

The S&P CNX Nifty touched a high and a low of 5,971.00 and 5,937.55 respectively. 

The top gainers on the Nifty were DLF up by 3.57%, Ambuja Cement up by 3.46%, BPCL up by 3.27%, Reliance up by 3.19% and HCL Tech up by 2.48%.

The top losers of the index were Tata Steel down by 2.13%, IDFC down by 1.90%, Jindal Steel down by 1.76%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.40% and Cipla down by 1.34%.

The European markets were trading mixed, France’s CAC 40 down by 0.11%, United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 0.49% and Germany’s DAX up by 0.27%.

Most Asian markets extended gains for the third consecutive session and ended higher on Wednesday, amid signs of global economic recovery. Japan’s Nikkei went home with green mark, touching 11,500 mark for the first time since September 2008, despite of firmness in the yen, because of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s gains. Meanwhile, stocks in South Korea had their best day since September after Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong Soo said the world economic outlook is improving. Mainland Chinese stocks too ended higher, as its property firms recouped earlier session’s losses.