Indian equity added gains; Nifty above 6,050 mark

Indian equity markets added gains to continue firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The market got some respite after a poll of 26 economists showed that Indian factories’ output probably rose for a third consecutive month in March, boosted modestly by improving exports and investment, but weak domestic demand prevented a more significant recovery. The median forecast from a poll showed production at factories, mines and utilities probably rose an annual 2.0%, after a 0.6% rise in February. Traders were seen piling position in FMCG, Realty and IT sector stocks while selling was witnessed in Capital Goods, Power and Metal sector stocks. In scrip specific development, RPG Life Sciences was locked in the upper circuit limit on back of turnaround in January-March quarter earnings. The pharmaceutical company reported a net profit of Rs 7.4 crore in the fourth quarter of FY13 as against a loss of Rs 5.69 crore in the year-ago period. Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS) were trading in red after its promoter Oracle announced that it will sell 5.3% stake in the company to comply with the minimum public shareholding requirements.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green barring KLSE Composite while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,050 and 19,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 953:935, while 104 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,958.74, up by 69.79 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 19,989.64 and 19,851.22. There were 15 stocks advancing against 14 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading up by 0.37% and 0.29% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 1.02%, Realty up by 0.20%, IT up by 0.19%, TECK up 0.12% and Health Care were up by 0.08%, while Capital Goods down by 0.99%, Power down by 0.29%, Metal down by 0.11%, PSU down by 0.11% and Consumer Durables down by 0.08% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 2.53%, Tata Motors up by 1.66%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.31%, ITC up by 1.28% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.66%, Tata Steel down by 1.31%, L&T down by 1.30%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.26% and Jindal Steel were down by 1.77% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to make bill paying system convenient in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committee headed by G Padmanabhan, has proposed to set up a single platform for all direct bill payments. The proposed Indian bill payment system aims to bring all banks, billers and customers on one platform through the Government Internal Revenue Order (GIRO) system.

The GIRO model will enable payment of dues such as taxes, insurance premium, utility payments, university fees, school fees and examination fees, etc. Further, the GIRO will enable the setting up of a centralized infrastructure bringing all the billers and banks to the bill platform through aggregators. In a GIRO payment system, up to three banks collecting bank, payer bank and the payee bank may be involved and the customers can access the payment channel through any available outlet.

As per the central bank, over 30.8 billion bills are generated each year in the top 20 cities in the country. While cash and cheque collections constitute over 90% of the transactions and electronic payments continue to be low.  The RBI committee has also suggested setting up a separate organization to operate and manage it on commercial lines. Currently, direct bill payments are limited to only some utility providers and lack interoperability, customer convenience and access to electronic payment modes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,057.55, up by 14.00 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 6,070.15 and 6,024.95. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HDFC up by 2.49%, Lupin up by 2.09%, Power Grid up by 1.95%, Tata Motors up by 1.76% and IndusInd Bank was up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 2.18%, Tata Steel down by 1.79%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.63%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.63% and Axis Bank down by 1.41% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.48%, Hang Seng jumped 0.86%, Jakarta Composite increased 0.77%, Nikkei 225 surged 0.74%, Straits Times soared 0.97%, KOSPI Composite up by 0.11% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 1.27%.  On the flip side, KLSE Composite was down by 0.34% was the only loser.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.37%, Germany’s DAX slipped 0.02% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.01%.