Benchmarks continue to trade firm on positive global cues

Indian equities have maintained its upward journey after a massive run-up last week as FIIs continued to pump in dollars on hopes of improvement in macroeconomic situation with softening of crude oil and gold prices and easing inflation. The equities have held on to their gains without any jitters of profit booking carrying forward a strong consolidation in the late morning session. Positive cues from global markets also provided support to the benchmarks. Sentiments remained bullish on reports of higher foreign fund inflows on optimism about a rate cut by RBI. A firming trend in the Asian region following gains on the US market encouraged by strong data also supported the sentiment. On the global front, Asian markets too were trading in green at this point of time as sentiments in the region got a boost with the sign of improving global economic recovery. Japanese government upgraded its outlook for the domestic economy in a report released on May 20, 2013.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Auto, Oil & Gas and Metal while selling was seen in Health Care and Consumer Durables sector. In scrip specific actions, Adani Enterprises, Apollo Hospitals gained ahead of its quarterly results. Dhanlaxmi Bank (DLB) surged after the private sector lender earned a net profit of Rs 2.62 crore for the fiscal ended March 2013, compared to a net loss of Rs 115.63 crore for the fiscal ended March 2012. NIIT Technologies soared  on reporting  22 per cent increase in its net profit at Rs 56.6 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, backed by all-round growth especially in the travel vertical. Tata Motors rose after the global auto giant said its subsidiary TML Holdings Pte had issued and allotted S$350 million ($280 million) of senior notes due 2018. Infosys spurted despite reports that the Income Tax department has slapped a Rs 582 crore ($106 million) tax demand notice on the company for 2009-10 assessment year. PTC India Financial Services tanked on disappointing Q4 results.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 6,200 and 20,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 1087: 676.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20426.56, up by 140.44 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 20441.82 and 20277.76. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 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 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 2.61%, Oil & Gas up by 1.07%,Metal up by 1.01%, Realty up by 0.67% and PSU up by 0.65% while, Health Care down by 0.92% and Consumer Durables down by 0.32% were the  losers on the on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.84%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.31%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.82% and RIL up by 1.94%, Coal India up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Wipro was down by 2.01%, Cipla was down by 0.75% , ICICI Bank was down by 0.54%,  Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.51%, and  ONGC was down by 0.44% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Pitching for urgent reforms in policy and regulatory areas, global analytical company - CRISIL, with the government setting $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), has asked the government to ensure that benefits of the progress achieved reach the bottom of the pyramid.

CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory president Sameer Bhatia said ‘infrastructure segments like power, road and ports have significantly evolved over the years mainly due to reforms, private sector interest and strong investment flows. Now, they are at a point which calls for the next level of initiatives to reap the fruits of the first wave of reforms and policy initiatives’.

By adding further, he said that the first wave was oriented towards sharing responsibility with the private sector in developing infrastructure, while, the second wave has to be oriented towards ensuring that the desired benefits are available to the man on the street in an efficient manner.

Regarding the power sector development, Bhatia said, regulations led to implementation of key reforms like unbundling of utilities, de-licensing in generation leading to development of a competitive power market. Now, the sector requires next genre of reforms in terms of realisation of open access to provide end-consumers the option of choosing suppliers, technology transformation and upgrade in transmission and distribution, as well as more private sector participation in distribution, he added.

Referring to the port sector, he said that over the past decade, policy orientation was towards creating capacity and promoting private sector investment. Now the sector needs structural re-orientation to implement reforms like development of port-linked evacuation corridors, corporatization of ports and maritime city development

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,221.80 up by 34.50 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 6,229.45 and 6,195.25. There were 35 stocks advancing against 14 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.89%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.41%, M&M up by 3.17%, Reliance up by 2.12%, and Bank Baroda up by 2.03%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.94%, Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 3.17%, Kotak Bank down by 0.89%, Cipla down by 0.86% and ICICI Bank down by 0.72% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 20.32 points or 0.89% to 2,303.19, Hang Seng surged 397.81 points or 1.72% to 23,480.49, Jakarta Composite jumped 71.45 points or 1.39% to 5,217.13, KLSE Composite increased 7.66 points or 0.43% to1776.82, Nikkei 225 was up by 209.81 points or 1.39% to 15,347.93 and Straits Times up by 0.41 points or 0.01% to 3,450.20.

On the flip side, KOSPI Composite dipped 2.62 points or 0.13% to 1,984.19 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 5.13 points or 0.06% to 8,363.06.