Indian markets trade higher in early deals; Nifty surpasses 5,950 mark

Shrugging off weak global cues, Indian equity indices are trading in green terrain in Thursday’s morning deals, after a cautious start, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy review tomorrow. Some encouragement also came in after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of government’s decision of allowing 51% foreign direct investment in the multi-brand retail sector. However, the gains remain capped as traders remained on sidelines eyeing the HSBC India Manufacturing PMI data, to be announced later in the day to gauge the pace of growth of manufacturing. PMI has fallen to its slowest in 16 months in March. Sentiments also remained fragile as fertilizer stocks like Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals, Coromandel International and Gujarat State Fertilisers edged lower as the government in its bid to rein in fiscal deficit has decided to cut the subsidies on phosphate and potash-based fertilisers in the fiscal year that began in April.

Also, global cues remained somber as the US markets tanked overnight on getting a disappointing batch of economic data. Payroll processor ADP reported that private sector employment increased by much less than expected in the month of April. Asian markets too were trading mostly in the red as sentiments got dented on the back of weaker than expected economic data from China which added worries about global growth, hitting shares of commodity producers. The Chinese purchasing managers’ index fell to 50.6 in April from an 11-month high in March of 50.9. A reading above 50 indicates expansion; below indicates contraction.

Back home, on the sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and banking while, fast moving consumer goods remained the lone losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading in line with benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 718 shares on the gaining side against 399 shares on the losing side while 61 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,459.33; about 44 points lower compared to its previous closing of 19,504.18, and has touched a high and a low of 19,596.15 and 19,451.26 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,596.15, up by 91.97 points or 0.47%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 60.78% stocks advancing against 34.13% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.56% and 0.56% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.75%, Teck up by 1.26%, Bankex up by 1.01%, Consumer Durables up by 0.80% and Capital Goods up by 0.73% while, FMCG down by 0.53% was the sole loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.25%, HDFC up by 1.75%, Infosys up by 1.66%, SBI up by 1.54% and Jindal Steel up by 1.36%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 1.47%, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.27%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.96%, Hindalco Industries was down by 0.93% and ITC was down by 0.91% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, to promote the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects in sectors like coal, road and rail, the government has made a strong case for setting up independent regulatory authorities to meet all the challenges that the sectors are facing. While addressing an event, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said, 'the regulatory authorities have to be empowered and they have to be given enough authority to be able them to deal with the issues which are arising on the regulatory side.'

By adding further, Mayaram said that there is a need to re-look at the existing regulatory authority and ways to further empower them. The independent regulatory authorities to be able to look at specific sector related problems must be independent of the government and other party, he added.

Regarding the problems being faced by PPP projects, he said that the government cannot bailout projects which fail due to commercial reasons and it can step in if the failures are on account of regulatory hurdles. Therefore, the distinction between the two kinds of failures is necessary.

Further, in order to bring in adequate resources for setting up of a sound and efficient infrastructural base, the government has entered into the 'Public Private Partnership (PPP)' programme. For the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector.  

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,911.40; about 18 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,930.20, and has touched a high and a low of 5,961.40 and 5,910.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,960.15, up by 29.95 points or 0.51%. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 2.91%, TCS up by 2.13%, SBI up by 1.93%, HDFC up by 1.82% and Reliance Infrastructure up by 1.73%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.50%, Cairn down by 1.28%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.27%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.96% and ITC down by 0.93%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 4.57 points or 0.21% to 2,173.34, Hang Seng slipped 67.18 points or 0.30% to 22,669.83, Jakarta Composite dropped 14.90 points or 0.29% to 5,046.02, KLSE Composite decreased 3.87 points or 0.23% to 1,713.78, Nikkei 225 contracted 72.76 points or 0.53% to 13,726.59 and KOSPI Composite was down by 7.41 points or 0.38% to 1,956.54.

On the flip side, Straits Times added 28.61 points or 0.85% to 3,396.79 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 39.07 points or 0.48% to 8,132.73.