Markets trade in fine fettle in early morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks, despite some initial volatility, are trading in the green terrain in early deals on Tuesday as sentiments got some boost from report that Core Sector, the eight key infrastructure industries, grew at their fastest pace in seven months at 3.7% in August compared with an expansion of 3.1% in the previous month, boosted by robust performance in electricity, cement, steel and petroleum refinery products. Sentiments also got some support after the Reserve Bank has decided to conduct open market operations (OMOs) by purchasing government securities for an aggregate amount of Rs 10,000 crore on October 7. Appreciation in Indian rupee as against US dollar too supported the sentiments. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.52 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 62.62 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

Meanwhile, most of the Asian equity benchmarks were trading in the green at this point of time with Japanese markets was trading up by around quarter a percent as a report showed that confidence among large Japanese manufacturers increased before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveils plans for an economic-support package. However, gains remained capped as global risk appetite was frail on concerns over political dysfunction in US as lawmakers struggled to keep the government offices running ahead of today’s budget default.

Back home, some cautiousness crept in after India’s CAD in first quarter FY14 was at 4.9 percent, comparatively higher than 3.6 percent of GDP registered in the previous quarter ended March 2013, however it was narrower than expected at $21.8 billion. On the sectoral front, banking witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by auto and capital goods, while metal, fast moving consumer goods and public sector undertaking remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading marginally in the green, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 651 shares on the gaining side against 461 shares on the losing side while 56 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19452.05; about 72 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19379.77, and has touched a high and a low of 19466.18 and 19264.72 respectively. The index is currently trading at 19436.83, up by 57.06 points or 0.29%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 55.62% stocks advancing against 38.15% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap up by 0.20% and Small cap indices up by 0.38%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 0.94%, Auto up by 0.82%, Capital Goods up by 0.66%, Realty up by 0.62% and Consumer Durables up by 0.33%, while Metal down by 0.97%, FMCG down by 0.47%, PSU down by 0.43%, Oil & Gas down by 0.33% and Power down by 0.03% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.75%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.10%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.69%, SBI up by 1.08% and ICICI Bank up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Sesa Goa was down by 2.66%, ONGC was down by 2.22%, NTPC was down by 2.02%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.68% and Hindalco Industries was down by 1.47% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Allaying fears of the Indian industry that the new Land Acquisition Act would make projects economically unviable, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said that the new act applies only to the land acquired by Central and State authorities for any public purpose, and there would be no bar on purchase of private land. The industry must look beyond land acquisition by Government and explore land purchase opportunities, he added.

By adding further, Jairam Ramesh said that according to the new act all land sales including Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement will come into the public domain, which will increase transparency and will also make it easier for the corporates to purchase lands. The Rural Development minister further added that the ministry has been working towards improving land records management and promoting transparency in land sales across India. National Land Record Modernisation Programme worth Rs 1,000 crore is being implemented with focus on computerisation of land records, digitisation of maps and surveys.

To ensure that landowners benefit from the almost lopsided increase in the value of land after the development of a large infrastructure or industrial project, the new Land Acquisition Act proposes compensation by four times the market value in rural areas and twice the market value in urban areas. It also includes provision to deal with cases where compensation has not been paid in five years, and non-development of the acquired land for five years (to prevent a real estate arbitrage play). Further, new Land Acquisition Act, will also make it mandatory to obtain the consent of 80 per cent landowners for acquiring land for private sector projects and 70 per cent consent for public-private projects.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,756.10; about 20 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,735.30, and has touched a high and a low of 5,762.40 and 5,700.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,757.70, up by 22.40 points or 0.39%. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 3.86%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.53%, IDFC up by 2.39%, DLF up by 2.19% and Axis Bank up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Sesa Goa down by 2.74%, ONGC down by 1.89%, Jindal Steel down by 1.72%, BPCL Bank down by 1.63% and Hindalco down by 1.47% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Jakarta Composite rose 18.07 points or 0.42% to 4,334.24, Nikkei 225 increased 30.67 points or 0.21% to 14,486.47, Straits Times strengthened 15.70 points 0.50% to 3,183.57, Seoul Composite added 8.20 points or 0.41% to 2,005.16 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 25.74 points or 0.31% to 8,199.61.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was down by 2.09 points or 0.12% to 1,766.53.

Chinese and Hong Kong equity markets remained shut for the trade today.