Benchmarks edge higher in early deals on Wednesday

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity indices have made a positive start with frontline indices inching towards their crucial 20,200 (Sensex) and 6,150 (Nifty) levels. Sentiments got a boost by data showing that foreign funds remained net buyers of Indian stocks on May 21, 2013. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 679.44 crore. The up-move in initial session was also supported by buying in software and technology counters on the back of weak rupee. The rupee lost 30 paise to close at nearly six-month low of 55.41 in the previous session due to sustained dollar demand from importers and weak local equities.

Global risk appetite remained jubilant after two senior Federal Reserve officials hinted on continuation of US central bank’s stimulus plan to support flagging growth. Meanwhile, Asian markets rallied in early trade with Japanese Nikkei average climbing to a five and a half year high after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) concluding its two days meeting maintained its easing plan despite jitters over the recent volatility in bond markets, hoping it can prevent a renewed spike in yields by fine-tuning market operations.

Back home, some jubilation also came in from buying in sugar stocks like Shree Renuka Sugar, Bajaj Hindustan, Balrampur Chini Mills, EID Parry and Rana Sugars after the Uttar Pradesh cabinet gave in to a long-standing demand by the sugar industry to extend stamp duty and land registration waivers to existing as well as new sugar mills. On the sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and capital goods while, realty, consumer durables and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 739 shares on the gaining side against 470 shares on the losing side while 64 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 20150.69; about 39 points higher compared to its previous closing of 20111.61, and has touched a high and a low of 20220.35 and 20150.69 respectively. The index is currently trading at 20198.28, up by 86.67 points or 0.43%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 57.57% stocks advancing against 37.76% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.40% and 0.28% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.29%, Teck up by 1.21%, Capital Goods up by 0.65%, Metal up by 0.61% and PSU up by 0.60% while, Realty down by 0.04% was the sole loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 1.60%, Infosys up by 1.24%, Sun Pharma up by 1.09%, SBI up by 0.98% and NTPC up by 0.95%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.99%, Bajaj Auto was down by 0.78%, HDFC was down by 0.71%,   HDFC Bank was down by 0.34% and  Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.12% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to kick-start much-delayed plan of building a series of national expressways, the government is planning to introduce alternate financial models involving low-cost foreign loans and leveraging adjoining land. However, the government has scraped the earlier deadline of 2015 for rolling out 1,000 km national expressway.

The road ministry plans to start with the Delhi-Jaipur expressway and is expected to cost over Rs 16,000 crore. The Cabinet had cleared Rs 16,680 crore for the entire 1,000 km in 2006. Though, the government's plan of building expressways continue to be stuck because of red tape and funds crunch, which has also escalated the project costs by several times.

Normally, expressways cost between five to eight times more than highways, which cost about 10 crore per km. In India, 93-km Ahmedabad-Vadodara is the only national expressway. Earlier the government was hoping for Rs 9,000 crore investments from private sector, but given the prevailing economic slowdown, it is not sure funds will come in.

Therefore, the road ministry is planning to build the expressways through the Engineering Procurement & Construction (EPC) route by using cheap foreign loans. The ministry is also working on a proposal to charge toll rates that are 1.25 times more than that on highways.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,127.05; about 12 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,114.10, and has touched a high and a low of 6,147.60 and 6,126.05 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 6,138.80, up by 24.70 points or 0.40%. There were 34 stocks advancing against 14 declines, while two stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 1.93%, Coal India up by 1.48%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 1.42%, Infosys up by 1.39% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.17%.

On the flip side, DLF down by 1.91%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.94%, JP Associate down by 0.72%, Bajaj-Auto down by 0.72% and Ranbaxy down by 0.70%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 2.63 points or 0.11% to 2,307.74, Jakarta Composite increased 18.50 points or 0.36% to 5,207.25, KLSE Composite surged 17.66 points or 0.99% to 1,794.81, Nikkei 225 soared 166.11 points or 1.08% to 15,547.13, Straits Times jumped 13.72 points or 0.40% to 3,457.62, KOSPI Composite added 10.94 points or 0.55% to 1,992.03 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 6.30 points or 0.08% to 8,389.35.