Sensex, Nifty edges up in positive territory; March inflation eases to 40-mnth low

Following a weak start, Indian equity markets slowly edged up in positive territory amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Meanwhile, WPI inflation eased in March to a 40-month low, at 5.96% for the month of March as compared to 6.84% for the previous month of February. January inflation figures, however, were revised upward to 7.31% from 6.62%. The Sensex, which was down nearly 100 points in early trade, is now up in positive territory at 18,300.33, up by 57.77 points or 0.32% from its previous close. With this inflation numbers, investors hopes for rate cut will increase even after India’s central bank has lowered borrowing costs twice in 2013 to spur investment. To get further direction, markets will be watching for Indian trade data due this week, which will help to estimate the impact of falling global oil and gold prices on the country’s record current-account deficit. In currency market, Indian rupee depreciated against greenback amid dollar strength against the euro and other currencies in overseas market. On the sectoral front, rate sensitive stocks banks, auto and infra companies were seeing buying interest, while IT stocks were struggling in trade.

On the global front, most of the Asian shares were trading lower after global equities and commodities slumped late last week on weak US growth and rekindled worries in the euro zone, turning investor sentiment cautious ahead of a batch of Chinese data due later in the day. Back home, the market breadth was favoring positive trend; there were 1,032 shares on the gaining side against 789 shares on the losing side while 95 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,300.33, up by 57.77 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 18,314.96 and 18,144.22. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.47% and Small cap index was up by 0.56%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 2.09%, PSU up by 1.52%, Bankex up by 1.00%, FMCG up by 0.88% and Capital Goods up by 0.78% while, IT down by 2.17%, Consumer Durables down by 1.78%, TECk down by 1.36%, Auto down by 0.85% and Metal down by 0.67% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.00%, SBI up by 1.73%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.60%, ICICI Bank up by 1.34% and HDFC up by 1.13%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 3.56%, TCS was down by 3.00%, Infosys was down by 1.83%, Sterlite Inds was down by 1.69% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.57% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report, the country faced a huge power deficit of over 12,000 MW during the peak hours in the FY13. The total power availability was 1,23,294 MW against the peak demand of 1,35,453 MW in the last fiscal. Lack of fuel supply such as gas, coal shortage and less rains in the eastern and north-eastern regions were cited as the primary reasons for the power deficit.

The Southern region was worst affected due to power shortage as demand for electricity overshot by 6,052 MW against availability of 31,586 MW during the peak hours. Among the states, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Bihar were the worst affected with a peak power deficit of over 20 percent during the fiscal FY13. 

In India, electricity is produced with the help of coal, crude oil, water and natural gas. Currently, the resources allocated to energy supply are not sufficient for narrowing the gap between energy needs and energy availability. As on March, 2011 country's estimated coal reserves were at about 286 billion tonnes, lignite at 81 billion tonnes, crude oil at 757 million tonnes and natural gas at 1,241 billion cubic metre (BCM). Coal was already being imported for thermal plants and the import of LNG and production of shale gas could be the options for gas-based power generating stations in the long term.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,555.60 up by 27.05 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 5,560.50 and 5,500.30. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 6.58%, ONGC up by 4.95%, Bank of Baroda up by 3.15%, Ultra Cement up by 2.91% and PNB up by 2.85%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 3.45%, Tata Motors down by 3.27%, Infosys down by 2.47%, Cairn down by 2.33%, and Sesa Goa down by 1.62% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined by 0.96%, Hang Seng tumbled by 1.47%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.66%, Nikkei 225 slumped by 1.03%, Straits Times slipped 0.07%, KOSPI Composite dipped 0.01% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.74%.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 0.07 points was the only loser.