Firm trade prevails; Nifty above 6,000 mark

Indian equity markets continued to trade firm in the late afternoon session on account of strong buying in front line blue chip counters. The mood on the street was upbeat on expectations of monetary easing and a dovish stance by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at its meeting scheduled on May 3 fired up all the rate sensitive stocks. This optimism was despite news that India’s manufacturing PMI expanded the least since Nov 2011 in April; with factory output rising at weakest pace in current 49-month period of expansion. Traders were seen piling position in IT, TECK and Capital Goods stocks. In scrip specific development, Nitco was trading firm as the company seeks the approval of shareholders for corporate debt restructuring scheme approved by the Corporate Debt Restructuring Empowered Group. On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red barring Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted, while the European markets were trading on mixed note. 

Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,000 and 19,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1213:990, while 116 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,724.54, up by 220.36 points or 1.13% after trading in a range of 19,791.89 and 19,451.26. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading up by 0.63% and 0.70% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.19%, TECK up by 1.78%, Capital Goods up by 1.49%, Realty up by 1.33% and Bankex up by 1.17% while there were no losers on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 3.49%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.47%, L&T up by 2.47%, Infosys up by 2.23% and HDFC up by 2.10%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.77%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.41%, Gail India down by 1.39%, Hindalco Industries down by 0.98% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.86% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government has cut the price of non-subsidised cooking gas by Rs 54 per cylinder to Rs 847 from Rs 901 with effect from May 1. However, the rates will vary in different cities, depending upon local sales tax or VAT. This is the second time that the price of non-subsidized LPG cylinder was slashed in a month with the previous cut of Rs 3 having come on April 1. Moreover, the government has also raised the cap on subsidized LPG cylinders from six to nine from April, 2013.

The government is also planning to provide subsidy to 14 crore LPG subscribers directly in the consumer’s bank accounts from October 1, 2013. Pursuant to which, it has decided to launch Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for LPG throughout the country tentatively on the same date. Once the DBT for LPG is implemented, the government will transfer the subsidy of around Rs 435 per cylinder directly to consumers instead of giving it to oil companies and will transfer close to Rs 4,000 to every household annually to enable people to buy 9 cylinders of LPG at market price.

Presently, the state-owned oil firms are selling domestic cooking gas at a highly subsidized rate of Rs 410.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder, which is half the market price and the difference is paid by the government in the form of subsidy to oil companies.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,001.30, up by 71.10 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 6,019.45 and 5,910.95. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 4.05%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 3.85%, M&M up by 3.50%, TCS up by 3.32% and L&T up by 2.51%. On the flip side, Cairn down by 1.83%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.83%, GAIL down by 1.40%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.15% and Hindalco Industries down by 1.03% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite lost 0.17%, Hang Seng slipped 0.30%, Jakarta Composite dropped 1.14%, KLSE Composite decreased 0.18%, Nikkei 225 contracted 0.76% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.34%.

On the flip side, Straits Times added 1.01% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.43%. 

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 lost 0.24%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.10% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged lower by 0.15%.