Indian equities pare losses to trade in green; Nifty above 5,550 level

Indian equity markets pared losses to continue its firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters and taking cues from European counterparts. Traders were seen piling some position in Consumer Durables, Health Care and Oil & Gas sector stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK and Capital Goods sector stock. Power companies Tata Power, Reliance Power, Adani Power, Torrent Power and NTPC were trading firm after Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia stated that it would be unfair to expect power companies to undertake fuel risks due to fuel supply problem. He gave thumbs up to The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission's (CERC) pronouncement on Adani Power. In scrip specific development, Bank of Baroda was trading in red on reports that the bank’s Nassau branch saw successive wire transfers of several hundred thousand dollars from Dubai-based currency exchanges suspected of laundering organized crime proceeds. MTNL was trading in green after Kapil Sibal sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention for the revival of the loss-making state-run telecom operators BSNL and MTNL.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red barring KLSE Composite and Nikkei 225 while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,550 and 18,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1030:993 while 119 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,461.66, up by 11.43 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 18,504.48 and 18,402.93. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.09% and Small cap index was up by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.28%, Health Care up by 1.03%, Oil & Gas up by 0.85%, Realty up by 0.69% and Power up by 0.51% while, IT down by 1.10%, TECK down by 0.54%, Capital Goods down by 0.51%, Metal down by 0.26% and Bankex down by 0.18% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.92%, Cipla up by 2.36%, BHEL up by 2.17%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.68% and Sun Pharma up by 1.56%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 4.22%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.62%, L&T down by 1.13%, TCS down by 1.05% and Infosys down by 0.92% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao is expected to inform the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on April 09 about the final guidelines for award of new licences in the banking sector. The panel has been tracking the issue since the RBI released the final guidelines for new banking licences. 

As per the RBI final guidelines, business houses, state-run enterprises and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) having 10-year impeccable track record are eligible to apply for licences to set up banks. However, it is expected that the RBI would get difficulty in passing the bill as the left parties have already opposed the move.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) has also said in a statement that the banks set up by the big business houses will increase the scope for large-scale financial malpractices. The recent scams involving big business highlight the danger of financial swindles in such banks that will deprive the people who deposit in such banks of their hard-earned savings.

Earlier in 2011, the panel had informally discussed the issue with certain members and had expressed concerns about RBI’s move. On the other hand, several corporate bodies have already evinced interest in starting new banks. Presently, Indian banking industry consists of 26 public sector banks, 22 private sector banks and over 40 foreign banks.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,556.80, up by 3.55 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 5,569.20 and 5,537.05. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Reliance Infrastructure up by 3.46%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.20% Cipla up by 2.42%, JP Associates up 2.26% and BHEL up by 2.19%.

On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.51%, Ranbaxy down by 2.02%, Sesa Goa down by 1.93%, Axis Bank down by 1.70% and Cairn India down by 1.68% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.62%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.92%, Hang Seng slipped 0.04%, Straits Times descended 0.42%, KOSPI Composite edged lower 0.44% and Taiwan Weighted lost 2.39%. On the flip side, KLSE Composite increased 0.08% and Nikkei 225 surged 2.80%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 added 0.73%, Germany’s DAX jumped 0.36% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.43%.