Sensex, Nifty continue to trade firm; IT stocks lead

Indian equity markets despite coming off their early highs continued to trade in positive territory with notable gains, on the back of strong buying in the IT space with Sensex and Nifty hitting their highest levels since May 31 earlier in the day. Though, investors were treading cautiously, choosing to wait for the industrial output data for May 2013. In currency market, rupee depreciated against dollar on Thursday amid dollar demand from banks and importers. On sectoral front, IT stocks were leading the rally, taking cues from Infosys results. Infosys shares surged over 11%, to mark their highest intraday level in 23 months, after the company defied general expectations and retained its revenue growth forecast for the full year. Select stocks from healthcare and capital goods were also trading higher, while consumer durables, realty and metal stocks were trading lower. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries gained 0.9% after India's oil minister said on Thursday that the decision to raise prices of locally produced gas will not be reviewed, allaying fears that government may consider a roll-back.

On the global front, Asian stock markets were exhibiting a mixed trend, as investors were trading a bit cautiously after early sharp rally. Though most of the markets in the region opened on a positive note, some of them retreated subsequently with a section of investors choosing to take some profits amid lingering worries about a slowdown in China. Back home, the market breadth was favoring positive trend; there were 913 shares on the gaining side against 905 shares on the losing side, while 120 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,815.44, up by 139.38 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 19,962.78 and 19,785.59. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.04% and Small cap index was up by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 6.33%, Teck up by 4.83%, Capital Goods up by 0.63% and Health Care up by 0.46%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.11%, Realty down by 0.93%, Metal down by 0.84%, PSU down by 0.77% and FMCG down by 0.66% were the top losers on the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 11.13%, TCS up by 2.91%, Wipro up by 2.31%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.05% and L&T up by 0.90%.  On the flip side, ONGC was down by 2.33%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 2.22%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.73%, Hindalco Inds was down by 1.56% and Sterlite Industries was down by 1.48% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Indian auto industry continue to struggle with domestic passenger car sales declining by 9% 1,39,632 units in June this year from 1,53,450 units sold in the same month last year, mainly on account of decline in demand for the eighth straight month due to rising ownership costs and sluggish economic growth.

As per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM), motorcycle sales in last month declined by 9.16% to 7,99,139 units from 8,79,721 units in the same month previous year, while total two-wheeler sales in June 2013 declined  by 4.56% to 11,16,424 units from 11,69,741 units in the same period last year.

For the overall passenger vehicles, it was the seventh consecutive month of decline in sales, while for total heavy commercial vehicles the decline stretched to 14th month in a stretch with total sales of commercial vehicles dropping by 13.45% to 56,197 units from 64,928 units in the year-ago period. While, total sales of vehicles across categories registered a decline of 5.10% to 14,07,767 units in June 2013, as against 14,83,443 units in the same month of 2012.

Domestic demand in the country is witnessing a very bearish phase at present with demand declining continuously month-on-month, growth in commercial vehicle and passenger car segments have slipped faster than expected in last few months. Indian auto component manufacturer too are facing the heat of a global auto slowdown.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,960.10 up by 25.00 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 6,018.40 and 5,951.15. There were 15 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index and one remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Infosys up by 11.14%, TCS up by 2.62%, IDFC up by 2.30%, HCL Tech up by 2.27% and L&T up by 1.12%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.74%, Ultra Tech Cement down by 2.59%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.29%, Ranbaxy down by 2.08% and IndusInd Bank down by 1.96% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite declined 1.05%, Hang Seng contracted 0.74%, Straits Times dropped 0.44% and Seoul Composite was down by 0.64%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite rose 0.14%, KLSE Composite increased 0.15%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.17% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.50%.