Northward journey continues on Dalal Street in noon deals

Key domestic markets continued their northward journey in early noon trade with both the gauges recapturing their psychological 5,750 (Nifty) and 19,000 (Sensex) levels led by broad-based buying witnessed in index heavy-weights, amid speculation the Federal Reserve will continue with its accommodative policy stance. Rally in Asian counters too supported the sentiments as all the Asian equity indices were trading in the green at this point of time.

Back home, sentiment continued to remain jubilant after global rating agency, Moody’s, applauded Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s Budget saying that it pursues realistic fiscal consolidation path and is credit positive for the country’s sovereign rating. Giving thumbs up to the Union Budget 2013, Moody’s said that FY14 Budget is proposed to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.8 percent of the GDP from 5.2 percent in the revised estimates for the current financial year. Some support also came in from buying in metal counter as stocks like Sterlite Industries, JSW Steel, Bhushan Steel, Jindal Steel & Power, Hindalco Industries all edged higher after China announced economic growth target of 7.5% for 2013. China is the world’s largest consumer of copper and aluminum.

On the sectoral front, metal witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and auto while, consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,436 shares on the gaining side against 1,104 shares on the losing side while 98 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,055.56, up by 177.60 points or 0.94% after trading in a range of 19,086.96 and 18,943.62. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.13% and Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.79%, Realty up by 1.69%, Auto up by 1.60%, Bankex up by 1.36% and IT up by 1.24% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.43% and FMCG down by 0.10% were the only losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.66%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.80%, ICICI Bank up by 2.79%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.70% and Jindal Steel up by 2.58%.

On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.17%, NTPC down by 1.04%, ITC down by 0.94%, ONGC down by 0.22% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.14% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, optimistic about India’s export performance, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said, India would touch the $300 billion-mark in exports for this fiscal, as shipments for February and March are expected to be in the positive zone, though it remains a challenge for the country. As part of the pre-Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) stakeholder consultations, the minister met members of industry body CII.

In January, after a gap of eight months, India's exports made a marginal recovery and entered the positive zone, recording a growth of 0.82 percent to $25.58 billion. Though, trade deficit widened to $20 billion in January, the second highest figure ever in a month due to huge increase in import. However, during the April-January period, overseas shipments shrunk by 4.86 percent to $239.6 billion.  

By adding further, Sharma said the government and the export promotion councils are putting all efforts to reach the $300 billion-export mark against the $360 billion target set for 2012-13. On the forthcoming FTP, he said ‘the government will formulate a policy this time, which can boost exports and bring down the transactions cost and also improve the access to credit and the cost to credit.’

In the pre-FTP meeting, CII President Adi Godrej also suggested the government to take steps including extension of 2 percent interest subvention to all sector and expressed the need to make overall environment more conducive to boost exports. On long-term strategy, he added that there is a need to reduce time in taking decisions and getting approvals. Further, to push services exports, India should look for investment led services exports in sectors like financial services, health, education and telecommunication as this could be a part of India’s strategy to capture newer markets in the South.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,753.30, up by 54.80 points or 0.96% after trading in a range of 5,761.60 and 5,722.40. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 3.91%, Tata Motors up by 3.88%, Sesa Goa up by 3.19%, JP Associate up by 2.93% and Hindalco up by 2.91%.

On the flip side, Bajaj-Auto down by 1.37%, BPCL down by 1.03%, NTPC down by 0.90%, ITC down by 0.80% and Power Grid down by 0.74% were the major losers on the index.

All Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite surged 2.33%, Hang Seng rose 0.35%, KLSE Composite jumped 0.29%, Nikkei 225 increased 0.27%, Straits Times added 0.36%, KOSPI Composite moved up 0.17%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.83% and Jakarta Composite was up by 0.11%.