Indian equity trade in a narrow range; Capital Goods rise higher

Indian equity markets continued to trade in a tight range while holding on to their gains in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters and taking cues from European market. Traders were seen piling position in Capital Goods (CG), Consumer Durables (CD) and Metal stocks while selling was witnessed in Health Care, IT and TECK sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Dish TV India is trading in green after brokerage firm CITI has maintained its buy rating on the company as it believes the disappointment in average revenue per user (ARPU) numbers in Q4 will be partly offset by lower churn to subscriber acquisition cost (SAC) and good cost control measures. Wockhardt was trading in red as the company has been issued import alert by US Food and Drugs Administration over the quality of drugs manufactured at their Aurangabad plant in Maharashtra. State Bank of India (SBI) was trading weak after brokerage house Jefferies retained underperform rating on the bank citing no catalyst in the near term for the stock to move up.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green while the European markets were too trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,950 and 19,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1092:985, while 134 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,734.59, up by 60.26 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 19,833.14 and 19,568.49. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index was up by 0.37% and 0.31% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.99%, Consumer Durables up 1.60%, Metal up by 1.59%, Realty up by 1.29% and Bankex up by 1.23%, while Health Care down by 1.36%, IT down by 0.61%, and TECK down by 0.56% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.29%, Tata Power up by 3.46%, L&T up by 3.19%, ICICI Bank up by 2.70%, and Sterlite Industries up by 2.06%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 3.25%, Hindalco Industries was down by 2.25%, Cipla was down by 1.81%, TCS was down by 1.67%  and BHEL was down by 1.58% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the share of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is expected to increase up to 50% in India's total exports by the end of 12th Plan (2012-2017) from 36% now on account of increasing demand from the western and emerging markets. The US and Europe which together account for 60% of the country's total exports.

MSME’s Minister K H Muniyappa said that adequate credit is paramount to the success of micro and small units and the government is implementing the Credit Guarantee Scheme to ensure better flow of credit to these enterprises by minimizing risk perception of banks/financial institutions in lending without collateral security.

Further, the scheme provides guarantee cover of up to 85% on collateral free credit facility to new and existing units for loans up to Rs 100 lakh. By adding further, the minister said, till April 2013, more than 11 lakh proposals have been approved under the scheme providing guarantee cover for total sanctioned amount of Rs 54,322 crore.

Moreover, the government has set up a six-member inter-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Finance Secretary R S Gujral which will suggest measures to boost the MSME exports. The sector contributes around 8% of the country's GDP, 45% of the manufactured output and provides employment to over 8 crore persons engaged in over 3.6 crore units, producing more than 6,000 products. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,995.35, up by 28.30 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 6,015.30 and 5,936.80. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.22%, Tata Power up by 3.58%, L&T up by 3.36%, Lupin up by 3.08% and ICICI Bank up by 2.87%. On the flip side, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 3.28%, Hindalco down by 2.20%, Cipla down by 1.77%, TCS down by 1.59% and BHEL down by 1.58% were major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.57%, Jakarta Composite strengthened 0.55%, Nikkei 225 added 0.89% and KOSPI Composite was up by 0.22%. On the flip side, Hang Seng was down by 0.23%, Taiwan was down by 0.34%. Stock markets in Malaysia, Singapore remained closed for a public holiday.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.68%, Germany’s DAX added 0.31% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 inched up by 0.01%.