Markets continue firm trade; Nifty above 5900-mark

Indian equity markets continued firm trade in the late morning session of April F&O series expiry day. Nifty was briefly trading above 5900-mark, while Sensex added over 150 points. Investors continued to pick up stocks, on hopes that government will initiate steps to boost growth, after Finance Minister stated that government is keen to get the insurance, food security and land acquisition legislations approved by Parliament to sustain the reform momentum. In currency market, rupee appreciated against dollar on increasing sales of the American currency by exporters. On sectoral front, oil, automobile, power, bank and PSU stocks were among the most impressive gainers. Capital goods, metal and healthcare stocks were also trading firm. Realty and FMCG stocks were off their highs, and information technology stocks continue to trade weak. Meanwhile, Jet Airways was up by 11% on sustained buying at the counter following the company striking a deal with Etihad Airways, while Axis Bank gained around 3% after reporting 21.75% surge in net profit for the January - March 2013 quarter.

On the global front, most Asian shares were trading higher on Thursday on better-than-expected growth data from South Korea ahead of a Bank of Japan policy meeting scheduled for Friday. Back home, the market breadth was favoring positive trend; there were 1,110 shares on the gaining side against 823 shares on the losing side, while 105 shares remains unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19343.49, up by 164.13 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 19349.59 and 19192.11. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.82% and Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.99%, Auto up by 1.95%, PSU up by 1.38%, Power up by 1.38% and Bankex up by 1.08% while, IT down by 1.48%, TECk down by 0.74% and Consumer Durables down by 0.40% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 4.13%, NTPC up by 3.55%, Tata Motors up by 3.06%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.52% and ONGC up by 2.31%

On the flip side, TCS was down by 1.75%, Wipro was down by 1.59%, Infosys was down by 1.19%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.57% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.46% were the top losers on the Sensex

Meanwhile, expressing confidence that India’s economy will get back to its potential growth rate, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory panel Chairman C Rangarajan said that India has ability to grow at 8 percent without fuelling inflation. While addressing an event, he said ‘with an investment rate in the range of 32-35 percent, there is a potential growth rate of 8 percent in the economy and it is possible to grow at that rate even without provoking high level of inflation’. 

By adding further, Rangarajan said that, though inflation is showing some signs of moderation, is however not any near to the comfort zone that it is supposed to be. Wholesale price index (WPI) for March moderated to 3-year low of 5.96 per cent against the Reserve Bank projection of 6.8 per cent. He further expects that the WPI inflation would remain around 6 percent in FY14.

While, releasing a report on Review of the Economy 2012-13, C. Rangarajan said that that India’s economy has bottomed out and projected 6.4 percent economic growth rate for FY14 on the back of improvement in performance of agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Regarding the FY13 growth, he expressed concern that despite having high investment rate of 35.8 percent, economy only grew by around 5 percent in the financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,901.60 up by 64.70 points or 1.11% after trading in a range of 5,906.70 and 5,853.30. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr Reddy up by 4.08%, Cairn up by 3.81%, Axis Bank up by 3.68%, NTPC up by 3.66% and IndusInd Bank up by 3.14%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.79%, HCL Tech down by 1.64%, Infosys down by 1.16%, HDFC Bank down by 0.49% and HUL down by 0.48%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in Green; Hang Seng surged 0.96%, Nikkei 225 jumped 0.60%, Straits Times strengthened 0.28%, KOSPI Composite was up by 0.84% and KLSE Composite increased 0.04%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined by 0.28%, Jakarta Composite declined 0.48% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.02%.