Benchmarks pare gains; FMCG, Metal lead

Indian equities have pared some of its morning gains and are now trading marginally in green in the late morning session as weakness in heavyweights like ONGC, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel weighed on the indices. Sentiments got some relief from better earnings by some blue-chip companies, a firm trend in the Asian region following overnight gains in the US and European markets, expectations of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India in its policy meet on May 3 and data showing that foreign funds remained as net buyers of Indian stocks on Monday, 29 April 2013. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 620.38 crore on Monday, 29 April 2013, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. On the global front, Asian markets too traded mostly in the positive terrain in later morning deals tailing record close on Wall Street. Sentiments also remained higher on hopes for political stability in Italy and expectations for global central banks to continue their growth-supporting monetary stimulus.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in FMCG, Metal and Health Care, while selling was seen in Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Auto sector. In scrip specific actions, Marico surged as it is set to announce its results today. Jet Airways soared on recently entered into a stake-sale agreement with Etihad Airways and will launch a public share sale to meet minimum public shareholding norms as prescribed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Hindustan Unilever gained as the company’s net profits rose 15 percent year-on-year to Rs 787 crore on Monday, beating street estimates. Bank of Maharashtra rose after reporting over three-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 259 crore for the quarter ended March 2013.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5,900 and 19,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 936: 529.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19513.41, up by 125.91 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 19622.68 and 19492.83. 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 0.62% and Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 4.45%, Metal up by 1.19%, Health Care up by 0.98%, Realty up by 0.54% and Power up by 0.20% while, Capital Goods down by 0.40%, Oil & Gas down by 0.37%, Auto down by 0.23%, Consumer Durables down by 0.07% and PSU down by 0.03% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 15.60%, Sterlite Industries up by 4.20%, Sun Pharma up by 1.92%, Jindal Steel up by 1.92% and Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.87%. On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.16%, BHEL was down by 0.94%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.88%,  L&T was down by 0.80%, and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.75% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the International Monetary Fund (IMF), integration of direct cash transfer with Aadhaar will take time but the scheme will help Indian government to save 0.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The IMF in its report - 'Regional Economic Outlook: Asia and Pacific' said that Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), which entail direct payments from the government to recipients, can bring down costs and diversion by phasing out middlemen and complex bureaucracies and also ensure the better spending on poor.

However, the report also highlighted some challenges regarding the implementation of DBT saying that the timeframe for bringing India's population of 1.2 billion into the Aadhaar programme could extend beyond 2014, and integrating this database with information on individuals eligible for subsidised fuel will take time.

To avail the facility, a consumer will have to get his or her bank account linked with Aadhaar number. The Unique Identification Authority of India, (UIDAI) which issues the Aadhaar numbers, has already issued about 320 million Aadhaar cards and has planned to issue 600 million cards by 2014. Currently, the government maintains large subsidy programmes for food, fertiliser and fuels. Subsidised food and kerosene are available from government-owned stores at below-market prices for eligible residents.

Earlier on January 1, the government launched its ambitious DBT programme and a total of 43 districts in 16 states have been identified for the first round of DBT, while for the second round, it has planned to cover 78 more districts by July 1.   

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,929.00 up by 24.90 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 5,962.30 and 5,926.65. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 15.59%, Sesa Goa up by 2.87%, Sun Pharma up by 1.97%, Jindal Steel up by 1.91% and Dr Reddy up by 1.67%. On the flip side, IDFC down by 1.50%, HDFC Bank down by 1.32%, ONGC down by 1.32%, BHEL down by 1.12%, BPCL down by 0.99% and were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in Green; Hang Seng rose 181.95 points or 0.81% to 22,762.72, KLSE Composite increased 1.05 points or 0.06% to 1,709.02, Straits Times surged 19.40 points or 0.61% to 3,381.49, KOSPI Composite soared 24.04 points or 1.24% to 1,964.74 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 51.27 points or 0.64% to 8,085.33.

Jakarta Composite declined 14.12 points or 0.28% to 4,985.63 and Nikkei 225 was down by 11.55 points or 0.08% to 13,872.28.

Mainland Chinese markets remained shut for a holiday.