Sensex, Nifty trade marginally in green; January IIP expands by 2.4%

Indian benchmarks were trading marginally in the green in the late morning session. On the global front, Asian markets, after a positive opening, entered into the negative terrain as investors opted to book their profit garnered in past few sessions. Back home, in a pleasant surprise, India's annual industrial output growth measured by index of industrial production (IIP) grew by 2.4% for the month of January 2013 against contraction of 0.6% in the previous month. The three sectors that constitute the index, i.e., mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors for the month of January grew by (-) 2.9%, 2.7% and 6.4% respectively. The traders were seen piling up positions in Oil & Gas, Metal and Realty, while selling was seen in Consumer Durables, IT and Teck sector. In scrip specific development, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Bajaj Hindustan, Shree Renuka Sugars and Balrampur Chini Mill were trading in firm on report that the government is likely to consider a proposal on sugar decontrol this week.

In scrip specific actions, Reliance Industries soared after reports that the Defence Ministry cleared company’s producing KG-D6 block and gas discovery area NEC-26 along with most of the areas where it had either barred any oil and gas activity or put stringent conditions. ONGC surged as a consortium led by the company will do a feasibility study on setting up a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Regasification Terminal at the New Mangalore Port. Berger Paints gained as wholly-owned subsidy Brushworks Paints has acquired the architectural paints business of Sherwin Williams for an undisclosed amount. MMTC slipped ahead of its share sale which is likely to hit the markets on March 14, 2013.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5900 and 19600 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 1130: 934.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19670.57, up by 24.36 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 19697.84 and 19639.24. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.11% and Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 0.66%, Metal up by 0.56%, Realty up by 0.49%, Auto up by 0.40%,and  FMCG up by 0.38%, while, Consumer Durables down by 0.68%, IT down by 0.61%, Teck down by 0.58%, Power down by 0.14% and Bankex down by 0.07% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.36%, Tata Motors up by 1.19%, Jindal Steel up by 1.19%, RIL up by 1.07% and Hindalco Inds up by 0.99%.

On the flip side, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.30%, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.02%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.69%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.61%, Infosys was down by 0.60% and were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Paris-based think-tank, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD), latest assessment shows, Indian economy slowing down while most of the developed world led by the US and Japan, seeing better growth prospects. The projections are based on OECD's Composite Leading Indicators (CLIs), which are designed to indicate turning points in an economy.    

In January, India's CLI stood at 97.2 marginally lower than 97.3 recorded in December last year. The country's CLI has been on decline trend since September 2012 when it touched 98.  This review comes at a time when the economy is surrounded with high inflation and fiscal deficit. Indian economic growth slipped to 4.5 percent in the three months ended December 2012, the lowest for any quarter in a decade. Fiscal deficit for the current financial year (2012-13) is projected to be 5.2 percent of GDP.

OECD said, ‘in China, India and to a lesser degree in Brazil the CLIs point to growth below trend. In Russia however, the CLI points to growth picking up’. However, OECD's readings for developed nations such as the US and Japan are positive. ‘In the US and Japan, the CLIs continue to point to economic growth firming. Further, in the Euro Area as a whole, and in particular Germany, the CLIs point to a pick-up in growth.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,945.30 up by 2.95 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 5,951.00 and 5,935.40. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ACC up by 1.82%, Ranbaxy up by 1.61%, Ambuja Cements up by 1.60%, HUL up by 1.43% and Tata Motors up by 1.18%.

On the flip side, Siemens down by 2.28%, Cairn down by 1.71%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.48%, Power Grid down by 1.18%and HCL Tech down by 0.89% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 17.35 points or 0.75% to 2,293.24, Hang Seng slipped 42.09 points or 0.18% to 23,048.73, KLSE Composite dipped by 1.16 points or 0.07% to 1,656.80, KOSPI Composite dropped 11.11 points or 0.55% to 1,991.70, Nikkei 225 declined 12.09 points or 0.10% to 12,336.68 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 40.19 points or 0.50% to 7,998.60.

On the flip side, Straits Times was up by 15.47 points or 0.47% to 3,308.39.

Jakarta Composite remained shut for the trade today.