Indian equity continue range bound trade; Realty up

Indian equity markets continue to trade in a tight range in the late afternoon session on account of mixed trading in front line blue chip counters. Traders were seen piling position in Realty, Oil & Gas and Health Care stocks while selling was witnessed in FMCG, IT and Consumer Durables sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Adani Ports and SEZ was trading firm after company posted a 197% increase in consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2013. Polaris Financial Technology was trading in green on reports that the move by the company to divest its technology services unit, FT Sourcing, valued at $300-$350 million, has attracted bids from Wipro, HCL Technologies & L&T Infotech. Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals’ was trading in red after company reported revenues which declined by 45.36% to Rs 268.16 crore in quarter ended March 31,2013 over the quarter ended March 31, 2012. Manappuram Finance was trading in red touching 52-week low after reporting extremely disappointing earnings in the March quarter.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green while the European markets were trading on a mixed note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,150 and 20,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 928:1020, while 109 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,257.77, up by 44.81 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 20,326.48 and 20,162.12. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap were trading up by 0.54% and 12% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.95%, Oil & Gas up by 1.52%, Health Care up by 1.48%, Bankex up by 1.30% and Capital Goods up by 0.99% while, FMCG down by 1.27%, IT down by 1.10%, Consumer Durables down 0.98%, TECK down by 0.87% and Auto down by 0.18% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 3.07%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 3.07%, Reliance Industries up by 2.26%, SBI up 1.71% and ICICI Bank up by 1.46%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.09%, Infosys down by 1.32%, TCS  down by 1.03%, Jindal Steel down by 1.01% and Tata Motors was down by 0.94% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government will provide subsidy to LPG consumers in 20 districts across the country from June 1, 2013. The consumers in the select districts will get the subsidy amount transferred into their bank accounts linked with Aadhaar number helping the government to cut its subsidy outgo by up to Rs 10,000 crore annually by eliminating diversions.

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said that 76 lakh consumers in 20 districts will get Rs 435 in their bank accounts every time, when they book a LPG refill. The government intends to extend the scheme to rest of the country but want to see the results of the roll-out in these 20 districts.

By adding further, the minister said that although 89 per cent of the LPG consuming population in these districts has Aadhaar number, the government will give a three-month grace period to them to procure the UID number and seed it with their bank accounts where cash subsidy has to be transferred. From September 1, only consumers having Aadhaar and banks accounts linked to them will get cash subsidy and the rest will have to buy LPG at market price, he added.

There are around 14 crore LPG consumers in India in which 2.5 crore were suspected to be duplicate or consumers holding more than one connection at the same address. Once the DBT for LPG is implemented, the government subsidy will reach the intended beneficiary only.    

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,169.80, up by 23.05 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 6,187.30 and 6,128.25. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 5.80%, IDFC up by 3.76%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 3.48%, Cipla up by 3.06% and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 2.91%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 3.12%, ITC down by 2.16%, Infosys down by 1.46%, Jindal Steel down by 1.30% and TCS down by 1.24% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 1.21%, Hang Seng increased 0.17%, Straits Times was up by 0.26%, KOSPI Composite up 0.79% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.86%.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite declined 0.84%, Nikkei 225 tumbled 0.39% and Jakarta Composite dropped 0.04%.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.21%, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.31% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 added 0.06%.