Indian markets trade higher in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks, despite initial jitters, were trading in the green with a gain of over half a percent with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 5,900 (Nifty) and 20,000 (Sensex) levels on the back of short-covering in blue-chip stocks after two days of continuous fall. Though, markets opened in the red as sentiments remained down-beat on report that the country’s crude oil import bill jumped 9.5 percent to Rs 3,47,432 crore in the first five months of the current fiscal on account of sharp depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar. Benchmarks soon made a recovery and entered into positive trajectory as sentiments turned sanguine after the Department of Economic Affairs Secretary (DEA) Arvind Mayaram said that there is no room of fear for rupee tanking again, when US Federal Reserve decides on tapering of its stimulus programme. He further stated that Government has enough ammunition in its hands to deal with the situation.

However, global cues remained choppy with the US markets closing lower on Monday, pulling off from their last week’s high as traders went on to cash in on the recent gains. While, most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower at this point of time as investors remained concerned about the debate on the US fiscal position after Senate is considering a measure to cut off funding for Obama’s healthcare law.

Back home, some respite also came in as government on Monday said it will not borrow more than Rs 2.35 lakh crore in the second half of the current fiscal. All the counters on the BSE sectoral front remained in the green with capital goods, realty and consumer durables were trading with significant gains. The broader indices were going neck to neck with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 734 shares on the gaining side against 368 shares on the losing side while 54 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19820.03; about 80 points lower compared to its previous closing of 19900.96, and has touched a high and a low of 20025.59 and 19782.78 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 20024.70, up by 123.74 points or 0.62%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 63.49% stocks advancing against 31.83% declines. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.65% and 0.42% respectively. 

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.63%, Realty up by 1.52%, Consumer Durables up by 1.14%, Power up by 1.11% and Auto up by 1.02%, while there were no losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 2.29%, Tata Motors up by 2.13%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.92%, BHEL up by 1.85% and ONGC up by 1.79%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 1.25%, Sun Pharma was down by 0.84%, SBI was down by 0.76%, Coal India was down by 0.64% and Sesa Goa was down by 0.63% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Indian non-oil trade deficit in the current financial year is likely to be much lower at $65-72 billion as against the $81.8 billion in 2012-13 on the back of curbs on gold imports. In order to check the country’s gold imports, the government had recently hiked gold import rates to 15% from 10% earlier and central bank also introduced 80/20 rule under which 20% of all gold imports has to be re-exported. Indian gold imports declined to $0.65 billion in August as compared to $2.9 billion in the previous month and a record $8.4 billion in May. 

Indian non-oil imports during August, 2013 were estimated at $21.96 billion, which was 10.4% lower than non-oil imports of $24.50 million in August, 2012. Non-oil imports during April-August, 2013-14 were valued at $128.11 billion, which was 0.3% lower than the level of such imports valued at $128.46 billion in April-August, 2012-13. However, industry body, Assocham said that the oil trade deficit may go up in the current fiscal because of continuing pressure on the crude oil prices in the international markets. Oil imports during April-August, 2013-14 were recorded at $69.68 billion, which was 5.60% higher than the oil imports of $65.98 billion in the corresponding period last year.

In order to boost Indian oil and gas sector, Assocham expressed the need of a holistic energy policy so that a lot of investment in the country will be channeled in the exploration of both crude and natural gas. It further suggested that policies governing oils pricing mechanisms, to be paid to the contractors, should be fixed in a transparent manner. Further, it mentioned that centre and state governments should reduce over-dependence on the oil sector for raising taxation revenue.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,855.00; about 34 point lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,889.75, and has touched a high and a low of 5,938.40 and 5,854.55 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,922.65, up by 32.90 points or 0.56%. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.27%, Asian Paint up by 2.11%, Tata Motors up by 2.10%, Tata Power up by 2.09% and L&T up by 2.03%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 1.76%, SBI down by 1.50%, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 0.93%, BPCL down by 0.87% and Sesa Goa down by 0.76% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 21.47 points or 0.97% to 2,199.57, Hang Seng dropped 223.49 points or 0.96% to 23,148.05, Jakarta Composite shed 43.82 points or 0.96% to 4,519.04, KLSE Composite dipped 6.55 points or 0.36% to 1,789.81, Nikkei 225 contracted 77.70 points or 0.53% to 14,664.72, Straits Times slipped 3.81 points or 0.12% to 3,210.44, Seoul Composite decreased 13.47 points or 0.67% to 1,995.94 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 2.56 points or 0.03% to 8,290.27.