Sensex, Nifty continue to trade in green

Indian equities continued to trade in the green adding on to their gains marginally through the late morning session. At the domestic level, the investors will closely watch the industrial production data for March on Friday and results of key companies this week to review the prospects of investing in the markets. On the global front, Asian markets too traded higher in the early deals tailing firm cues from US markets. Meanwhile, South Korean shares were trading in green after refiners shares rebounded from their recent sharp declines. The traders were seen piling up positions in Metal, Consumer Durables and IT, while selling was seen in Bankex, FMCG and Realty sector.

In scrip specific development, Banking and Realty shares continued to show weakness after the RBI cut key rates by 25 bps points on Friday. In scrip specific actions, shares in Suzlon Energy rose as the company plans to raise up to USD 400 million by selling 15 of its non-core assets. Aurobindo Pharma soared on receiving final approvals from US FDA to sell generic versions of two separate drugs Tamsulosin HCL and Clindamycin Palmitate Hydrochloride. Titan Industries Zoomed as it reported a 28 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, beating estimates. Aurobindo Pharma is edging up 0.3 percent after the pharmaceutical firm received the U.S. FDA approval to manufacture and market two generic drugs. Finolex Industries surged after reporting a robust 41% year-on-year (yoy) growth in its net profit at Rs 79.34 crore for the quarter ended March 2013, on back of lower raw material and interest cost. The plastic products maker had profit of Rs 56.19 crore in a year ago quarter. HEG gained after reporting seven-fold jump in net profit at Rs 35 crore for the quarter ended March 2013, due to foreign exchange gain. The company had profit of Rs 5 crore in a year ago quarter. Jaiprakash Associates slumped after the company reported 56.5 percent drop in its fourth quarter net profit to Rs 124 crore from Rs 284 crore, a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5,950 and 19,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 843: 547.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19624.62, up by 48.98 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 19660.06 and 19554.31. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53% and Small cap index was up by 0.77%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.92%, Consumer Durables up by 1.46%,  IT up by 1.27%, Auto up by 1.16%, and TECK up by 1.06% while, Bankex down by 1.05%, FMCG down by 0.47%, Realty down by 0.20% and  Capital Goods down by 0.10% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 3.67%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.74%, Tata Steel up by 2.54%, TCS up by 2.20% and Tata Motors up by 1.95%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank was down by 1.26%, ITC was down by 1.16%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.80%, SBI was down by 0.75%, L&T was down by 0.65% and were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, ruling out the possibility of rating upgrade, global rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said improvement in outlook was something which could be considered. As per the rating agency, a rating upgrade at this point is not on the cards, while, improvement in rating outlook was something which could be considered.

Last year in August, the rating agency had revised its outlook on India's long-term credit rating to ‘negative' from ‘stable' with a sovereign rating of ‘BBB-’ which is the lowest investment grade.  Last month, the government made a strong defense towards upgrading the sovereign rating to the representatives of S&P’s saying that the recent policy reforms would resolve deficit issues and boost investment in the country.

The government has been meeting rating agencies to improve the country’s outlook, since any lowering in rating grade will take it to junk investment grade, making it difficult for the country to attract foreign investments or the companies to borrow from abroad.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,951.30 up by 7.30 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 5,963.00 and 5,928.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco Industries up by 3.47%, Sesa Goa up by 2.77%, Tata Steel up by 2.63%, NMDC up by 2.49% and Rel Infra up by 2.31%. On the flip side, Kotak Bank down by 1.48%, JP Associate down by 1.40%, IDFC down by 1.39%, HDFC Bank down by 1.31%, and Axis Bank down by 1.17%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 19.46 points or 0.88% to 2,224.96, Hang Seng surged 214.52 points or 0.95% to 22,909.48, Jakarta Composite soared 57.07 points or 1.16% to 4,982.55, KLSE Composite zoomed 53.08 points or 3.13% to 1,747.85, Straits Times increased 19.08 points or 0.59% to 3,388.98, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 30.32 points or 0.37% to 8,165.35.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite was down by 0.57 points or 0.05% to 1,964.71.

Japanese market is shut for the trade today on account of Children’s Day.