Benchmarks hold early gains, trade in steadily

Indian equity benchmarks have continued to trade steadily in the green holding on to their gains through the late morning session on emergence of selective buying by funds, after country’s largest software exporter TCS posted encouraging fourth quarter results. Sentiments got some support from encouraging corporate earnings, data showing that FIIs were net buyers in yesterday’s trade on the bourses. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red in late morning session with Seoul Composite declining by above half a percent in morning deals, as LG Display led a broad selloff of tech stocks on worries about slowing demand for Apple Inc’s products and a dour growth outlook for Intel.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Capital Goods, Health Care and FMCG, while selling was seen in Metal, Bankex and Consumer Durables sector. In scrip specific actions, Indian oil marketing companies such as Hindustan Petroleum Corp gained on hopes recent slump in crude prices would lower the cost of under-recoveries. Jet Airways surged after reports that the Etihad deal will be finalised this month. Sterlite Industries soared ahead of the Supreme Court  verdict today on whether metals major Vedanta Aluminium should be allowed to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills in Kalahandi district of Odisha or not. ITC rose on recent media reports of price hikes in some categories of cigarettes. Tata Consultancy Services after the IT major reported operating margins which fell to 26.5 per cent from 27.3 per cent in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5,650 and 18,700 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 1020: 639.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18764.40, up by 33.24 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 18808.98 and 18691.61. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.33% and Small cap index was up by 0.56%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.22%, Health Care up by 0.54%, FMCG up by 0.52%, Realty up by 0.42% and Power up by 0.39%, while, Metal down by 0.98%, Bankex down by 0.48%, Consumer Durables down by 0.22%, IT down by 0.17% and PSU down by 0.05% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.25%, L&T up by 1.34%, HDFC up by 1.24%, NTPC up by 1.21% and Sun Pharma up by 0.93%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.52%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.32%,  Hindalco Industries was down by 0.97%, TCS was down by 0.97% and Sterlite Inds was down by 0.85% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that India and China, the two largest Asian economies will continue to drive the global growth and for the next one year India is expected to grow by 6.1-6.7 percent in FY14, while, China would grow by 8-8.5 per cent. He further said that India stands to gain from its huge demographic dividend as India's share of the working age population continues to rise, nearly one-half the additions to the Indian labour force over the period 2011-30 will be in the age group 30-49. On the other hand, share of this age group is slated to decline in advanced countries.

Chidambaram, who is on a visit to US to woo foreign investors, has said that the scarcity of natural resources, has created tension among the Eastern countries for resources as there are disagreements over the islands, underwater resources and even water itself. These conflicts can only be resolved by working collectively and subsequently increase trade, investment, and mutual gain within countries.

Referring to the recent financial crisis, Chidambaram said that the prevailing global economic slowdown has forced the world to adjust and industrial countries would now have to save more while emerging markets need to spend more. Such an adjustment would help industrial countries pay down heavy debt, while global demand to be supported by the emerging markets. China probably may consume more, while India would have to invest more.

Further, Chidambaram said that slowdown in industrial countries has affected India, especially its exports. However, it is expected that economic scenario will improve in future on the back of emerging economies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,699.15 up by 10.45points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 5,711.35 and 5,681.85.

There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.87%, BPCL up by 1.66%, HDFC up by 1.62%, Ranbaxy up by 1.43%, and L&T up by 1.25%.

On the flip side, Hero Moto Co down by 1.43%, NMDC down by 1.38%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 1.20%, ACC down by 1.03%, Power Grid down by 0.98% and were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite dipped 3.60 points or 0.16% to 2,190.19, Hang Seng slipped 10.08 points or 0.05% to 21,559.59, KLSE Composite decreased 0.88 points or 0.05% to 1,710.09, Nikkei 225 dropped 89.85 points or 0.57% to 13,306.63, KOSPI Composite contracted 15.75 points or 0.82% to 1,908.09, Straits Times declined 0.84 points or 0.03% to 3,290.67 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 15.93 points or 0.20% to 7,793.14.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite up by 1.77 points or 0.04% to 5,000.42