Markets continues firm trade; health care stocks takes the lead

Indian equity markets continued trading firm in the late morning session on Thursday as investors went for buying at several counters, tracking positive global cues. Market sentiments also improved with a better than expected current account deficit data, which narrowed at $18.1 billion, or 3.6 % of the GDP in the March quarter, sharply lower from the historically high level of 6.7% seen in the December quarter. Despite paring some marginal gains subsequently, the Sensex was up by 153.11 points, while Nifty was up by 20.20 points. Investors are now waiting for the crucial Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meet’s outcome, which will decide on a new gas pricing regime starting next fiscal. In currency market, rupee recovered against greenback with the RBI’s decision on Wednesday to ease rules for overseas borrowing by Indian companies. On sectoral front, oil, realty, bank, healthcare and information technology stocks have gained significant ground. Stocks from metal, PSU and power sectors too have posted strong gains, while, consumer durables, capital goods stocks were a bit subdued.

On the global front, the US markets posted solid gains overnight amid easing concern about the Fed stimulus following the commerce department revising downward the country’s growth forecast for the first quarter. Asian markets followed suit this morning, setting up a solid platform for the bulls at the Indian ring. Back home, the market breadth was favoring negative trend; there were 945 shares on the losing side against 941 shares on the gaining side, while 128 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,705.23, up by 153.11 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 18,775.47 and 18,702.40. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.06% and Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 2.35%, Health Care up by 1.36%, IT up by 1.17%, TECk up by 0.99% and Bankex up by 0.98%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.53%, Capital Goods down by 0.21%, power down by 0.17% and Metal down by 0.15% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 3.40%, ONGC up by 3.33%, RIL up by 2.38%, HDFC Bank up by 2.12% and Sun Pharma up by 1.86%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.16%, NTPC was down by 1.56%, Tata Motors was down by 1.45%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.09% and L&T was down by 0.49% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to conduct the third round of spectrum auction soon, a high power ministerial panel has sought the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) opinion on the reserve price to be set for the forthcoming spectrum auction.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said that the matter related to the reserve price should be referred to TRAI and it will be required to give its recommendations within 60 days because the government is very keen to move forward and sell the spectrum.  By adding further, Sibel said that after receiving the TRAI recommendations, the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) will meet to fix the reserve price so that spectrum in all bands can be sold.

As per the Supreme Court order of February 15, 2013, the Department of Telecom (DoT) is required to conduct third round of auction in 20 out of 22 service areas. The DOT is planning to auction all the spectrum- 800 Mhz (CDMA), 900 Mhz (GSM) and 1800 Mhz (2G GSM), which were remained unsold in March auction.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,638.90 up by 50.20 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 5,662.25 and 5,638.30. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were UltraTech Cement up by 3.91%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.73%, ONGC up by 3.18%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.65% and HCL Tech up by 2.62%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.09%, JP Associates down by 2.07%, NTPC down by 1.63%, Tata Motors down by 1.32% and Reliance Infra down by 1.19% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.16%, Hang Seng soared 1.03%, Jakarta Composite jumped 2.85%, KLSE Composite increased 0.69%, Nikkei 225 surged 2.96%, Straits Times added 1.33%, KOSPI Composite strengthened 2.87%  and Taiwan Weighted was up 1.27%.