Benchmarks show volatility, trade in green

The Indian equities showed a choppy trend however traded in green in the late morning session ahead of trade balance data today, which will picture the annual current account deficit numbers for FY13. Finance Minister is confident that fiscal deficit will be lower than 5.2 percent. Sentiments got some support by better trend on other Asian bourses after US markets closed at fresh record high yesterday. On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green terrain as sentiments got some boost after Chinese trade data signalled a recovery in the world’s second largest economy. China recorded a mild trade deficit of $884 million in March as imports surged way ahead of market expectations, growing 14.1% year-on-year, while annual export growth of 10.0% were largely in line with forecasts.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in IT, Teck and Realty, while selling was seen in FMCG, Auto and Consumer Durables sector. In scrip specific actions, Educomp soared as the company has sold its entire stake in JV to partner Pearson. Educomp exited Indiacan and sold its entire 50 percent stake to Pearson. Tata Steel surged after the company reported a surge in steel production and sales in Q4 March 2013.Jindal Stainless gained on reports the company has entered into a strategic agreement with Korean steelmaker Posco to help it stabilise production of alloy used in cars and home appliances.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5400 and 18,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in ratio of 755: 832.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18272.12, up by 45.64 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 18382.26 and 18225.20. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.01% and Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.02%, Teck up by 0.96%, Realty up by 0.49%, Capital Goods up by 0.46% and Health Care up by 0.25% and while, FMCG down by 0.73%, Auto down by 0.32%, Consumer Durables down by 0.23%, PSU down by 0.18% and Oil & Gas down by 0.08% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.88%, HDFC up by 1.84%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.82%, TCS up by 1.62% and NTPC up by 1.10%.

On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.58% , Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.16%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.12%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.63%  and Tata Motors was down by 0.57% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, an all party meeting on April 9 to sort out the differences on issues relating to the disputed land acquisition bill has failed to reach on consensus amid divergent views. Although the parties expressed a willingness to get the measure passed in Parliament at the earliest. Further, to sort out the differences, another round of consultations will be held on April 18, where the government is expected to bring its official amendments after studying the amendments suggested by various parties.

During the meeting, the left party was of the view that the government has deleted the term Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and replaced it with 'manufacturing zones' in the Bill. It suggested that instead of acquisition, the land could be leased to the developer as it was a ‘better proposition’ because the land would remain with the farmer and would provide him a regular annual income. If the land is not utilized for the purpose for which it was leased, it could be returned to the farmer, it added.

Earlier, in December, the Union Cabinet cleared the controversial land acquisitions bill. With the new land acquisitions law, the government hopes to make easy land acquisition and also remove bureaucratic hurdles that hold up highway projects, which have become a roadblock for the economic growth.

According to the provisions of the bill, permission of 80 percent of landowners would be required to acquire land for private industrial projects and in case of Public-Private Partnership projects permission of 70 percent of the landowners would be mandatory. However, no permission would be required in case of projects acquired for government purpose. The bill also has provisions to return the unutilized land to the land losers.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,499.80 up by 4.70 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 5,536.40 and 5,488.60. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HDFC up by 1.22%, Lupin up by 1.60%, TCS up by 1.47%, Kotak Bank up by 1.24% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.59%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.66%, Grasim down by 1.27%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.05%,  UltraTech Cement down by 1.02% and ITC down by 1.01% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng rose 39.81 points or 0.18% to 21,910.15, KLSE Composite increased 4.18 points or 0.25% to 1,694.45, Nikkei 225 jumped 109.36 points or 0.83% to 13,301.71, KOSPI Composite added 14.94 points or 0.78% to 1,935.98 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 23.29 points or 0.30% to 7,751.83.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 7.01 points or 0.32% to 2,218.76, Jakarta Composite slipped 29.45 points or 0.60% to 4,870.14 and Straits Times was down by 10.24 points or 0.31% to 3,286.33.