Domestic benchmarks trade slightly in positive in early deals

After exhibiting two days of continuous rally, Indian equity indices have made a positive start in Wednesday’s opening trade on the back of supportive global cues. The US markets made a considerable rebound on Tuesday after the plunge in the previous session on the back of some upbeat earnings and economic data. Asian markets were trading mixed with Japanese Nikkei surging about a percent as the yen weakened after the IMF raised the growth forecast for Japan.

Back home, both the frontline gauges were trading slightly in green as sentiments got some support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report saying that India with its favorable interest rate-growth differential has an advantage in addressing deficit concerns this year. Public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) viz. BPCL, HPCL and IOC continued their jubilant run on Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s statement that the government is considering freeing prices of locally produced oil and natural gas from state controls in a bid to lure more foreign investment. However, the gains remain capped after index heavyweight Reliance Industries declined by over two percent as its top line dropped 1.4% to Rs 86,618 crore and debt rose to Rs 72,427 crore at the end of the quarter. Though, the company posted a 32% increase in its fourth quarter net to Rs 5,589 crore, the biggest rise in nearly three years.

On the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by metal and banking while, oil and gas, software and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 780 shares on the gaining side against 463 shares on the losing side while 47 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,773.45; about 28 points higher compared to its previous closing of 18,744.93, and has touched a high and a low of 18,832.05 and 18,703.26 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,758.55, up by 13.62 points or 0.07%. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 60.47% stocks advancing against 35.89% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.70% and 0.35% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.66%, Metal up by 1.32%, Bankex up by 0.87%, Consumer Durables up by 0.81% and PSU up by 0.81% while, Oil & Gas down by 1.23%, IT down by 0.59%, Teck down by 0.31%, Auto down by 0.27% and Capital Goods down by 0.45% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.18%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.94%, Coal India up by 1.70%, Gail India up by 1.57% and ICICI Bank up by 1.38%.

On the flip side, RIL was down by 2.29%, TCS was down by 1.34%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.97%, Wipro was down by 0.88% and Infosys was down by 0.87% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India’s services exports increased by 9.5 per cent to $12.28 billion in February from $11.22 billion recorded in the same month of previous year. However, the export was down from a month ago at $13.89 billion in January 2013. During April-February period of FY13, the cumulative services exports declined by 2.5 percent to $121.18 billion from 124.25 billion in the same period of corresponding fiscal. 

Director General and CEO of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Ajay Sahai said the services exports are not on expected lines. We require double digit growth in services exports. The federation is expecting better exports data and sees $160 billion services receipt in the FY13. 

On the other hand, import of services in February 2013 stood at $6.35 billion versus $6.75 billion a year earlier. In January 2013, the services import stood at $7.52 billion. During the first 11 months period of FY13, services imports were valued at $73.68 billion.

The services sector contributes around 57 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product. Service sector includes key service exporter industries like Health Care, Tourism, Education, Engineering and Information Technology among others. Indian service sector has been growing at an average annual growth rate of about 28% during the last 5 years, making it the country’s growing consultancy sector which is offering its accumulated experience and expertise at home and abroad.   

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,708.65; about 19 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,688.95, and has touched a high and a low of 5,723.65 and 5,682.25 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,697.95, up by 9.00 points or 0.16%. There were 32 stocks advancing against 15 declines and 3 remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cements up by 2.55%, SBI up by 2.19%, HCL Tech up by 1.95%, Coal India up by 1.71% and DLF up by 1.65%.

On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.42%, TCS down by 1.22%, Dr Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.18%, Infosys down by 0.96% and BPCL down by 0.82%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in mixed; Jakarta Composite rose 25.06 points or 0.51% to 4,970.32, KLSE Composite surged 9.83 points or 0.58% to 1,710.36, Nikkei 225 soared 130.71 points or 0.99% to 13,352.15 and Straits Times was up by 3.75 points or 0.11% to 3,295.33.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite declined 14.14 points or 0.64% to 2,180.70, Hang Seng slipped 10.95 points or 0.05% to 21,661.08, KOSPI Composite dropped 10.49 points or 0.55% to 1,911.72 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.81 points or 0.01% to 7,800.24.