Benchmarks trade in green; Nifty surpasses 6,100 mark

Indian equity markets added gains to continue its firm trade hovering near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters and taking cues from European counterparts. The sentiments on the street were on upbeat mood after Finance Minister P Chidambaram stated that the country’s economy will continue to grow at five to six per cent regardless of what government does or doesn't do, but with effective governance it can rise to over eight percent. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas, PSU and Power stocks while selling was witnessed in Health Care sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Coal India was trading in green after the company reported 35% rise in its fourth quarter net profit and on reports that the company would raise coal rates by 10%. CESC was trading in green after reporting fourth quarter net profit at Rs 256 crore as against expectations of Rs 189 crore.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green barring Taiwan Weighted while the European markets were trading on optimistic note.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,100 and 20,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1135:1067, while 132 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,202.53, up by 171.76 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 20,209.82 and 19,963.23. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading higher by 0.69% and 0.55% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.82%, PSU up by 1.54%, Power up by 1.48%, FMCG up by 1.15% and Realty up by 1.15%, while Health Care down 0.15% was the only loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 3.48%, BHEL up by 3.38%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.24%, Gail India up by 2.75% and ITC up by 2.25%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.07%, SBI down by 0.77%, Tata Power down by 0.71%, HDFC was down by 0.56% and Sterlite Industries down by 0.52% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in view of security threat and slow execution of road projects in extremist-hit states such as Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the government is planning to relax norms for road developers in these states. Till date out of proposed 5,477 km till 2012, barely 2,300 km of roads in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas have been completed.

Pursuant to which, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has decided to relax eligibility conditions for developers like equipment capability, sub contracting for non-mechanized work and qualification criteria to attract more builders in such areas.

However, so far, there was no response from contractors in some areas of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra due to the security concerns. Further, regulatory hurdles and order problem have also stalled the special road projects in this region sanctioned by government. Earlier, the road ministry had taken up the matter with the home ministry for deployment of security forces in areas of naxal-hit states.

Further, the expenditure incurred on about 2,300 km of projects so far was about Rs 2,700 crore out of a budget of Rs 7,724 crore for 5,477 km. Further, the development of roads under the project is likely to be completed by March 2015.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,126.15, up by 43.00 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 6,127.25 and 6,055.40. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up by 4.13%, Hero MotoCorp up by 4.02%, BHEL up by 3.43%, Coal India up by 3.39% and GAIL up by 3.00%. On the flip side, UltraTech Cement down by 1.52%, IndusInd Bank down by 0.99%, Sun Pharma down by 0.95%, Kotak Bank down by 0.94% and SBI down by 0.86% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose  1.23%, Hang Seng increased 1.05%, Jakarta Composite surged 1.76%, KLSE Composite added 0.63%, Nikkei 225 soared 1.20%, Straits Times jumped 0.45% and KOSPI Composite was up by 0.32%.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.21% was the lone loser.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 1.33%, Germany’s DAX added 1.18% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 was up by 1.58%.