Benchmarks make further leeway in green to trade near day’s highest point

Local benchmark equity indices, making further leeway in green terrain, are now trading near day’s highest point on account of continuous frenzied buying activities by funds and retail investors, which was being witnessed right from the start of the trade. Meanwhile, local equities are also reflecting gains of regional peers, which are seen finding comfort in expectations that major central banks might have to stay super-loose for longer. Additionally positive European markets start is also bolstering the sentiment. Further, sharp appreciation of Indian currency for second session in row on account of weakness of dollar globally, is further adding to the upside of the markets. Thus, finding solace from all the positive factors, benchmark 30 and 50 share indexes, are trading above the crucial 19,800 and 5,850 mental levels respectively, with gains of over one and half percent. While, broader indices too adding extra ground are trading with gains of around a percent.

The secular move of bourses is being witnessed on across the board buying activities. While, all the sectors are trading in green, stocks from defensive Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector are only acting contrary to the trend. Nevertheless, prominent gainers on BSE are stocks from Metal, Banking and Information Technology counters.  Meanwhile, in stock-wise activities, only shares of Bharti Airtel are trading muted amongst Telecom pact after a telecom panel reportedly questioned Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) proposal to cut minimum auction prices for mobile phone spectrum by up to 60%. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which have thumped declines in the ratio of 1519:292; while 38 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19819.24, up by 302.09 points or 1.55% after trading in a range of 19837.95 and 19,583.97. There were only 27 stocks advancing against 3 declines on the index.

The broader indices too added some ground; the BSE Mid and Small cap indices were trading up by 1.11% and 0.90% respectively.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.83%, Bankex up by 2.53%, IT up by 2.47%, Realty up by 2.23% and Oil & Gas up by 2.21%. While, FMCG down by 0.87% remained the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Goa up by 6.38%, Tata Steel up by 4.57%, TCS up by 4.31%, Wipro up by 3.58% and Hindalco Industries up by 3.39%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.87%, ITC down by 1.34% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.73% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, amid rising concerns over the fiscal deficit number touching around three-fourths of the budget estimate in the first five months of the fiscal, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the government is planning to trim non-plan expenditure in order to meet the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 percent for the current fiscal.

Recently, to cut government spending in non-critical areas, the government has announced a slew of austerity measures including banning government departments for holding meetings in 5-star hotels among others. Meanwhile, the government has been introducing austerity measures since 2008-09. Earlier, in November 2012, austerity measures announced by government helped it to contain the fiscal deficit at 4.9 percent of GDP in FY13, against the budgeted target of 5.1 percent of GDP.

By adding further, Finance Minister said that the government had deliberately front-loaded the planned expenditure, which was running around 4-5 per cent ahead of the year earlier, as the borrowing reached 74.6 percent.

Chidambaram said he was confident on Indian economy’s growth to recover in the second half of this fiscal year on the back of rising core sector growth, higher exports and credit expansion to some sectors. Buoyed by better-than-expected Q1 current account deficit (CAD) numbers at 4.9 percent of GDP, Chidambaram said that CAD for the current fiscal will be contained lower than initially projected. The government has set a target to contain CAD at $70 billion or 3.7 percent of GDP for the financial year. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,886.30, up by 106.25 points or 1.84% after trading in a range of 5,891.75 and 5,802.70. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sesa Goa up by 6.53%, JP Associate up by 5.87%, Axis Bank up by 5.40%, Ambuja Cement up by 5.11% and Ultra-tech Cement up by 4.73%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.87%, ITC down by 1.47% Bharti Airtel down by 1.0.96% and Power Grid Corporation of India down by 0.10% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in mixed; Jakarta Composite up by 0.56%, Seoul Composite up by 0.03%,Taiwan Weighted up by 1.73%, Hang Seng up by 0.89% and KLSE Composite up by 0.12%, while Nikki 225 down by 0.09% and Straits Times down by 0.18% were the only losers.

European markets too got off a tad positive start; with CAC 40 edging higher by 0.01%, DAX rising by 0.12% and FTSE 100 gaining by 0.23%.