Markets continue positive trade amid volatility

Following a positive start, Indian equity markets erased some early gains but remained fairly well placed in positive territory in the late morning session on Monday. Investors were trading cautiously on lingering worries about the near-term economic outlook. Market sentiments were dampened by weak current account data released on March 28 ahead of reporting season. Meanwhile, the HSBC manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which gauges business activity in Indian factories but not its utilities, fell to 52.0 in March, after a surge to 54.2 in February. Declining domestic and foreign demand impacted Indian manufacturing growth in March, with the sector expanding at its slowest pace since November 2011. On the sectoral front, auto stocks were trading weak ahead of monthly sales numbers to be announced today. Buying is seen in realty, capital goods, pharma and power stocks. On the global front, Asian shares were trading lower on Monday as a Japanese corporate sentiments survey showed weaker-than-estimated conditions and China's official manufacturing PMI failed to meet expectations. Back home, the market breadth was favoring positive trend; there were 1,546 shares on the gaining side against 705 shares on the losing side while 89 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,871.47, up by 35.70 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 18,959.48 and 18,861.29. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.04% and Small cap index was up by 1.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.06%, Capital Goods up by 1.95%, Health Care up by 1.19%, Power up by 1.12% and Consumer Durables up by 0.72%, while Metal down by 0.94% and Auto down by 0.88% were the top losers on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.81%, L&T up by 2.30%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.24%, Cipla up by 2.07%, Infosys up by 1.74%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries was down by 3.57%, Tata Motors was down by 1.97%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.19%, ONGC was down by 0.87% and Wipro was down by 0.83% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to make India's FDI regime simple and easy to understand for investors, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), a nodal agency on FDI related matters, will release the 6th edition of the consolidated Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy soon, which will incorporate the changes made in the regulations over the past one year.  

FDI is considered crucial for economic development of a country and to attract maximum FDI into the country, the government has been liberalizing the foreign investment policy. The government in FY14 Budget has proposed to follow the international practice with regard to defining FDI and foreign institutional investors (FII) to remove the ambiguity in making distinction between the two types of investments. India has allowed FDI in most of the sectors through automatic route including multi-brand retail, power exchanges and broadcasting among others. 

In the April-January period of FY13, FDI contracted by 33 percent to $21 billion against $31 billion in the same period of previous fiscal due to global economic uncertainties. India receives maximum FDI from Mauritius, followed by Japan, Singapore, the Netherlands and the UK.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,700.40 up by 17.85 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 5,720.95 and 5,688.10. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 3.87%, DLF up by 3.81%, Cairn up by 3.43%, Reliance Infra up by 2.90% and Ranbaxy up by 2.56%.

On the flip side, Sesa Goa down by 2.03%, Tata Motors down by 1.91%, IDFC down by 1.32%, Jindal Steel down by 1.21% and ONGC down by 0.87% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were mostly trading lower; Straits Times increased 0.08%, Jakarta Composite down 0.05%, KLSE Composite tumbled 0.28% and Nikkei 225 was down 2.12%.

Stock market in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and China remained closed for the trade today.