Benchmarks trade in green; Nifty above 5,850 mark

Indian equity markets added gains to trade above neutral line hovering near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Traders were seen piling position in Realty, TECK and IT stocks while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Bankex and PSU sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, shares of telecom services provider like Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel, TTML and MTNL are trading firm in otherwise subdued market after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced reduction in the national mobile phone roaming charges. Sun TV Network was trading in green after brokerage house CITI recommended a buy rating on the stock. Maruti Suzuki India was trading under pressure after JP Morgan downgraded the company to underweight from neutral and cut its target price citing muted passenger car demand in India and increasing competition in higher value segments.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in green barring Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 while the European markets were trading on mixed note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,850 and 19,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1106:1000, while 145 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,352.79, up by 26.92 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 19,356.26 and 19,213.47. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 0.49% and 0.50% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.10%, TECK up by 1.08%, IT up 0.72%, Power up 0.32% and Capital Goods up by 0.22%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.63%, Bankex down by 0.27% and PSU down by 0.11% were the only losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.20%, Tata Power up by 1.94%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.40%, Infosys up by 1.39% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.37%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.46%, Gail India down by 1.37%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.73%, HDFC Bank down by 0.37% and Tata Motors down by 0.35% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with an aim to revive the domestic economic growth, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has pitched for creation of a conductive environment for investment and faster clearances of projects. Indian economy growth slowed down to around 5 percent in the previous fiscal.

In the mid-quarter monetary policy review, the RBI governor, D Subbarao said ‘ key to invigorating growth is accelerating investment by creating a conducive environment for private investment, improving project clearance and implementation and leveraging on the crowding-in role of public investment’.

Referring to the industrial output, the RBI chief said that there is an urgent need to address the weakness in manufacturing activities, which have slowed with a persistent contraction in mining activity. Industrial production growth slowed down to 2.3 per cent in April after picking up in the preceding month to 3.4 percent.

By adding further, Subbarao said that sluggish growth in capital goods production points to damped investment demand whereas a pick-up in consumer non-durables could be indicative of a fragile return of consumer confidence.

On the agriculture sector, the governor said that spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall over the next three months will be crucial in determining the performance of agriculture. Last year’s robust Rabi production and the current monsoon performance so far augur well for growth prospects, he added.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,854.85, up by 4.80 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 5,854.95 and 5,808.30. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.05%, Reliance Infrastructure up 1.92%, Kotak Bank up by 1.86%, Tata Power up 1.82% and Sesa Goa up by 1.75%. On the flip side, UltraTech Cement down by 2.32%, Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 2.28%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.79%, NTPC down by 1.73% and Gail India down by 1.58% were the major losers on the index.

Most of Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.14%, Jakarta Composite surged 1.62%, Straits Times soared 1.49%, KOSPI Composite rose 0.93%, KLSE Composite up by 0.11% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.23%.

On the flip side, Hang Seng dropped 0.01% and Nikkei 225 down by 0.20%.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.16%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.15% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher 0.40%.