Sensex, Nifty trades marginally in green

Indian markets opened positively on back of last session's rally and early morning cues from Asian Markets. However, after wiping off their early gains were trading marginally in green in the late morning session. On the global front, Asian shares rebounded after three days of continuous downfall as sentiment remained buoyed by new US data. Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Consumer Durables, IT and Health Care while selling was seen in, Bankex, Auto and Realty sector.

In scrip specific actions, Punj Lloyd soared on receiving an offshore project worth Rs 314 crore in Al-Khafji, Saudi Arabia from Al Khafji Joint Operations. Glemark Pharmaceuticals surged after the company stated its subsidiary Glenmark Generics has filed an abbreviated new drug application with USFDA for a generic version of FINACEA. National Aluminium Company slumped after the Government of India set Rs 40 per share as floor price for paring its stake through an offer for sale to comply with listing norms.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5900 and 19500 levels respectively.The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 1096: 925.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19581.97, up by 11.53 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 19673.16 and 19555.61. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.27% and Small cap index was up by 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.43%, IT up by 0.68%, Health Care up by 0.60%, Power up by 0.52% and Metal up by 0.48% while, Bankex down by 0.77%, Auto down by 0.34% and Realty down by 0.27% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 1.51%, HDFC up by 1.37%, Cipla up by 1.32%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.32% and ONGC up by 1.17%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank was down by 2.02%, Tata Motors was down by 1.55%, HDFC Bank was down by 1.23%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.88% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.43% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, In a big sign of relief for the UPA Government, global ratings agency Standard & Poor's pegged India's GDP growth for FY'14 at 6.4 percent and said it may upwardly revise outlook on the sovereign rating to stable if the Government continues to focus on policy initiatives to reduce structural fiscal deficits, improves investment climate and increase growth prospects.

The rating agency S&P, which last April put India's sovereign rating outlook to negative (BBB- which is close to junk status),  has said that declining growth in Asia's third- largest economy would start bottoming out starting next month, but there was still downside risks because of uncertain external demand, a worse-than-expected monsoon, and political paralysis. The five state polls in the second half of 2013, with general elections next year and slowing down economic environment both globally and domestically would make it difficult to rein in fiscal deficit at the targeted level of 4.8 percent for FY'14.

S&P also suggested measures like efficient use of the fuel, fertiliser and agricultural subsidies and early implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) to bring down the fiscal deficit.      

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,919.30 up by 10.35 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 5,945.65 and 5,914.25. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Siemens up by 3.05%, IDFC up by 2.59%, Asian Paint up by 1.95%, Hindalco up by 1.61% and HDFC up by 1.52%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.26%, Tata Motors down by 1.74%, DLF down by 1.48%, HDFC Bank down by 0.80% and Maruti down by 0.75%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite surged 37.36 points or 1.65% to 2,307.64, Hang Seng strengthened 142.15 points or 0.63% to 22,761.33, Jakarta Composite soared 57.46 points or 1.20% to 4,843.83, Nikkei 225 jumped 131.25 points or 1.06% to 12,512.44, Straits Times added 22.07 points or 0.67% to 3,301.63 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 14.74 points or 0.19% to 7,958.72.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite declined 7.85 points or 0.48% to 1,638.37 and KOSPI Composite was down by 12.77 points or 0.64% to 1,989.40.