Benchmarks continued to trade in green

Benchmarks were trading in a narrow range with positive bias in late morning trade. Investor’s sentiments got some support after Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said that India now is in a better position to face the US Federal Reserve’s unwinding of its easy money policy whenever it takes place. However, market remain cautious as investor will roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near month to November series. The near month October derivatives contract will expire today. The data for two important indicators -- fiscal deficit and core sector -- for the month of September are likely to be released today.

On the global front, all the Asian equity benchmarks, were trading in the red at this point of time, dampening the sentiments. Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Teck while selling were seen in Bankex, Healthcare and FMCG on the BSE. Public sector Oil marketing companies viz. BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher after the recommendations of expert panel headed by former Planning Commission member Kirit S Parikh who has suggested that Diesel prices should be hiked by a steep Rs 5 per litre, kerosene by Rs 4 a litre and cooking gas (LPG) rates by Rs 250 per cylinder immediately to cut fuel subsidy bill by Rs 72,000 crore.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 903:667. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 21,000 and 6,250 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21054.14, up by 20.17 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 21066.41 and 20991.98. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.70% and Small cap index gained 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.91%, Capital Goods up by 1.30%, Teck up by 0.68%, Metal up by 0.57%, and IT up by 0.45%. while Bankex down by 0.43%, Healthcare down by 0.35%, FMCG down by 0.33%  and PSU down by 0.13% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.41%, Wipro up by 1.73%, L&T up by 1.56%, Tata Motors up by 1.30%, and SSLT up by 1.19%. On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.13%,%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.04%, Gail India was down by 0.97% and  Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.96%,  were the top losers on the Sensex,

Meanwhile, The government has hiked the import tariff value of gold to $442 per 10 gram from $418 in line with global prices of the precious metal amid rising gold supply in domestic market during the festival season. Tariff value or the base price is set to determine the customs duty on the precious metal and to prevent under invoicing. However, the import tariff value of silver has been kept unchanged at $699 per kg. 

At present, gold is being sold at a high premium in domestic market owing to the supply crunch caused by government's measures to restrict the import of precious metal in an effort to check country’s widening current account deficit (CAD). Rising gold import has become a cause of concern for the government as it remains second major factor after crude oil for high CAD, which widened to a record high of 4.9 percent of GDP in the April-June quarter, 2013. The government has set target to contain country’s CAD at 3.7 percent of GDP for the current fiscal.

Meanwhile, the government’s measures to contain the gold imports have started yielding as imports of gold and silver plunged more than 80% to $0.8 billion in September from $4.6 billion a year earlier. Recently, the RBI has introduced 80/20 rule under which 20% of all gold imports by jewellers have to be re-exported and the government has hiked gold imports rates to 15%. India’s gold import is likely to come down to between 800-850 tonnes in current fiscal from 950 tonnes in FY13 on the back of sharp hike in import duty by the government and restrictions put by the RBI. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,253.90 up by 2.20 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 6,255.20 and 6,235.90. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.49%, HCL Tech up by 2.17%, Wipro up by 1.57%, SSLT up by 1.41%, and  L&T up by 1.34% .On the flip side, Ambuja Cements down by 1.71%, ONGC down by 1.42%, ACC down by 1.20%, M&M down by 1.10% and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.02% were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 14.74 points or 0.68% to 2,145.72, Hang Seng dipped 92.41 points or 0.40% to 23,211.61, Jakarta Composite slumped 74.57 points or 1.63% to 4,500.31, KLSE Composite shed 8.56 points or 0.47% to 1,808.82, Straits Times slipped 6.59 points or 0.20% to 3,223.85, Seoul Composite contracted 14.03 points or 0.68% to 2,045.55 , Nikkei 225 was down  by 33.12 points or 0.23% to 14,469.23  and Taiwan Weighted was down by 27.21 points or 0.32% to 8,437.85.