Indian equities add minor gains; Nifty hovers near 5,700 mark

Indian equity markets added minor gains to continue its firm trade in late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters. The sentiments on the street did turn pessimistic following the release of 16 months low factory output figures. The markets however managed to hold in green on account of some optimistic statements by the Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who believes that the economy is capable of absorbing $50 billion in foreign direct investment per year. Traders were seen piling some position in Realty, Capital Goods and Power sector stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal and Auto sector stock. In scrip specific development, Novartis India was trading under pressure after touching one-year low after the Supreme Court dismissed parent firm Novartis AG's plea for getting its blood cancer drug patented in India. Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Kingfisher Airlines were trading firm as ATF prices were cut today by a steep 5.5%, reversing the rising trend of past two months. Jet fuel constitutes over 40% of an airline’s operating costs and the reduction in prices will ease the burden of the cash-strapped airlines. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was trading in green after the company raised over Rs 1,000 crore through bonds backed by sovereign guarantee from institutional investors.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,700 and 18,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1677:864 while 104 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,864.06, up by 28.29 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 18,959.48 and 18,796.60. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 1.06% and 1.88% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 4.14%, Capital Goods up by 1.73%, Power up by 1.19%, Health Care up by 1.13% and Consumer Durables up by 0.55%, while Metal down by 1.04% and Auto down by 0.81% were the only losers on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.02%, Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 2.64%, L&T up by 2.15%, Cipla up by 2.05% and Infosys up by 1.80%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries down by 4.58%, Tata Motors down by 1.93%, Wipro down by 1.36%, Jindal Steel down by 1.34% and TCS down by 0.97% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Cabinet Committee on Investments (CCI), which was set up in January for clearing major infrastructure projects, is expected to give its nod for a number of projects within the next 3 weeks.  

Last month, the CCI had cleared the development of five oil and gas blocks where the defence ministry had either barred oil & gas activity or put stringent conditions on it. These include Reliance Industries' KG-D6 and Mahanadi blocks and one block of Cairn India in the KG Basin. Besides, the Environment and Forests Ministry had also informed CCI that it had initiated steps for speedy approval to infrastructure projects, stuck for want of green nod. Further, CCI is also likely to consider proposals to ease norms for highway projects.

Regarding the energy prices and power sector, Ahluwalia said, ‘domestic energy prices have to be more closely aligned to global prices and most of all, solving the fuel supply problems for the power sector and all this put together will enable the Indian economy to see increase in investments.’ By adding further he said, India should have more projects on power generation and emphasis would be to simply make sure that (India's) infrastructure story, looks very good.

We have been very successful in expanding the space in power sector. In 10th plan, we added 21,000 MW. In 11th plan which ended in 2011-12, we added 54,000 MW. In the last year of the plan, we added 22,000 MW which is a little more than the whole of what was done in the 10th Plan, he added.

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 5,675.90. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 6.14%, Cairn India up by 4.26%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 3.45%, BHEL up by 3.19% and JP Associates up by 2.98%.

On the flip side, Sesa Goa down by 2.89%, Tata Motors down by 1.91%, Jindal Steel down by 1.64%, NMDC down by 1.39% and IDFC down by 1.18% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; KLSE Composite slipped 0.25%, Nikkei 225 plunged by 2.12%, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.07%. On the flip side, Straits Times rose 0.02%.

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

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 added 0.53%, Germany’s DAX ascended 0.08% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 jumped 0.38%.