Markets turn green in noon deals tracking firm European markets

Indian equity benchmarks have pared all their early losses and entered into positive trajectory with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 5,350 (Nifty) and 18,000 (Sensex) levels following firm opening in European counterparts with CAC, DAX and FTSE all gaining over half a percent. Though, all the Asian equity markets were trading in the red at this point of time as sentiments remained dampened after minutes from the Federal Reserve's July policy meeting showed it was still on track to start tapering stimulus as early as next month, sending Treasury yields to two-year highs.

Back home, Indian rupee too recovered from day’s low of 65.51 per dollar mark in the noon session to 65.14 per dollar on the back of RBI intervention. Buying in metal and mining counters too supported the sentiments on report showing that China’s manufacturing unexpectedly expanded in August 2013. Flash HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 50.1 from July’s final reading of 47.7, which was the weakest in 11 months. China is the world's largest consumer of copper and aluminum. Moreover, stocks related to software counter too were trading higher as rupee continued to depreciate.

On the sectoral front, metal witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by oil and gas and public sector undertaking, while realty and banking remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were struggling to get some traction, while the overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1022: 869; while 131 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18112.71, up by 206.80 points or 1.15% after trading in a range of 18152.57 and 17759.59. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.16% and Small cap index down by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 3.60%, Oil & Gas up by 1.75%, PSU up by 1.05%, Health Care up by 1.03% and Consumer Durables up by 0.97%, while Realty down by 1.76% and Bankex down by 1.02% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 6.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.69%, Sterlite Inds up by 4.61%, ONGC up by 3.83% and Jindal Steel up by 2.86%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki was down by 3.21%, HDFC Bank was down by 1.90%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.74%, HDFC was down by 1.64% and  ICICI Bank was down by 1.07% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, giving some respite to the policy makers and showing signs that the steps taken by the government are helping in improving the investment environment in the country, foreign direct investment (FDI) into India increased by about 16 percent year-on-year to $1.44 billion in June 2013, compared to $1.24 billion, though the numbers still are the lowest figure during the calender year.

For the April-June quarter, foreign direct investment into the country grew by 22 percent to $5.39 billion from $4.42 billion during the same period of previous year.The sectors that received the maximum inflows during the first quarter of the fiscal include, pharmaceuticals $1 billion, services $ 945 million, automobile industry $ 515 million and computer software and hardware $171 million

Region wise, the maximum FDI during the quarter came from Singapore of $1.85 billion, followed by Mauritius $1.09 billion, Germany $510 million, the Netherlands $ 408 million and the $315 million.

FDI inflows which plunged in 2012-13 to about $ 22.42 billion from $36.50 billion in 2011-12, raised concern of the government which requires a huge investment to mend its fiscal deficit and to fund infrastructure such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth. In this regard, the government recently has liberalised FDI policy in as many as 12 sectors which include telecom, tea and petroleum and natural gas.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,361.85, up by 59.30 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 5,369.80 and 5,254.05. There were 39 stocks advancing against 10 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 7.25%, JP Associate up by 7.08%, ONGC up by 5.62%, Bharti Airtel up by 5.42% and Ranbaxy up by 5.42%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.79%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.67%, M&M down by 1.46%, HDFC Bank down by 0.84% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.82% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Nikkei 225 was down by 0.44%, Jakarta Composite down by 1.67%, Straits Times down by 1.15%, KLSE Composite down by 1.63%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.28%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.23% and Hang Seng down by 0.68%.

Most of the European markets were trading in green; Germany’s DAX up by 38.43 points, the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 up by 27.46 points and France’s CAC 40 was up 28.15 points.