Benchmarks continue lackadaisical trade; Nifty above 6250 mark

Indian equities added gains to continue its trade in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying. The sentiments were on lackadaisical mood after the upward revision in the US GDP data raised fears about tapering of Federal bond buying program. Investors however seem to draw some solace from country’s Prime Minister’s statement, who highlighted that the country’s growth rate had more than doubled to an annual average of over 7% and the economy was on an upward trajectory in the last 20 years. Traders were seen piling position in Power, Consumer Durables and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in Bankex, IT and Realty sector stocks.  In scrip specific development, Jet Airways was trading in green amid reports that market regulator SEBI may again take up the open offer issue in the company’s deal with Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad. Hero MotoCorp was trading in green after foreign brokerage firm upgraded the company from sell to outperform.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,250 and 20,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1190:1097 while 163 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20977.04, up by 19.23 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 21,049.84 and 20922.45. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap indexes up by 0.55% and 0.39% respectively.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.10%, Consumer Durable up by 1.70%, PSU up by 1.50%, Metal up by 0.78% and Capital Goods up by 0.65%. While, Bankex down by 0.04%, IT down by 0.01% and Realty down by 0.01% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.37%, Coal India up by 3.61%, NTPC up by 2.99%, Hero Moto Corp up by 2.36% and SSLT up by 1.47%.

On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.20%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.16%, HDFC Bank down by 1.13, Hindalco Industries down by 1.03% and HUL down by 0.72%.

Meanwhile, concerned over the growing raw material imports for electronics and telecommunications sectors, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed the need to develop a strong domestic manufacturing base in electronics and telecommunications in order to mitigate burden of growing imports for these sectors. India is expected to import electronics products worth around $300 billion, which will be more than the value of the country's imports of petroleum products.

Highlighting the need to avoid the situation where the country can face difficulties in financing these huge imports, Prime Minister said that India should have manufacturing facilities that help in balancing trade in electronics products and are a part of global supply chains. Talking about policies in these sectors, Manmohan Singh added that National Telecom Policy 2012 has brought clarity on number of issues in the sector and the Department of Telecommunications has already started issuing Unified Licenses and will soon issue the Merger and Acquisition guidelines. Manmohan Singh has suggested the Telecom Ministry's plan to provide 3G connectivity with computers in order to modernise systems and revolutionize the delivery of education.

The government has noted that it has left no stone unturned in trying to create attractive and level playing field for telecom and electronics segment. It has also brought in clarity in the entire Information Communication Technology and Electronics (ICTE) sector by introducing new policies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,256.55, up by 15.45 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 6,268.15 and 6,230.75. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declining stocks on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 4.49%, Coal India up by 3.50%, NTPC up by 3.20%, Power Grid Corporation up by 2.80% and Hero Moto Corp up by 2.31%.

On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.32%, HDFC Bank down by 1.18%, JP Associates down by 1.17%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.04% and Hindalco Industries down by 0.99% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mostly in red; Straits Times down by 0.26%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.09%, Seoul Composite down by 0.22%, Jakarta Composite down 0.96% and Shanghai Composite down 0.44%. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 up 0.81%, KLSE Composite up by 0.35% and Hang Seng gained 0.13%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.24%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.62% and UK’s FTSE 100 inched higher 0.30%.