Firm trade prevails; Nifty above 6350 mark

Indian equities continued to trade firm in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line counters. The sentiments were on positive mood from early trades after BJP’s victory in state assembly elections. The mood on the street also got push due to Indian rupee, which after scaling a four-month high at 60.90, was trading stronger from its previous close of 61.44 on Friday. Traders were seen piling position in Bankex, Capital Goods and Realty stocks, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables sector stocks. In scrip specific development, ITC was trading firm after a foreign brokerage firm initiated a buy call on the stock citing discount in valuations. On the global front, the Asian markets barring Straits Times were trading in green, while the European markets were trading on a mixed note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,350 and 21,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1123:1188 while 173 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21320.96, up by 324.43 points or 1.55% after trading in a range of 21,483.74 and 21282.64. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices continued to trade in green; with BSE Mid cap and Small cap indexes gained by 0.53% and 0.25% respectively. On the sectoral front, Bankex up by 3.05%, Capital Goods up by 2.68%, Realty up by 1.77%, PSU up by 1.75% and Power up by 1.62%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SSLT up by 4.85%, ICICI Bank up by 4.75%, L&T up by 3.84%, NTPC up by 3.46% and ONGC up by 3.04%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 5.64%, Cipla down by 0.81%, Tata Steel down by 0.41%, Tata Motors down by 0.22% and HUL down by 0.15%.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) will organize a meeting with the heads of the public sector banks soon in order to encourage them to lend to MSME sector under the Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).

Union Minister of State for Small and Medium Enterprises, K.H. Muniappa has said that presently, banks are cautious for lending under the scheme in some areas of MSMEs, therefore, the meeting will organize to learn about their problems and sort them out. The Government would stand guarantor for a significant portion of the loans and provide matching subsidies under scheme, Minister added. On the other hand, banks had reported that many MSMEs loans had turned bad as the subsidies were credited to the loan account holders’ account.

Under the PMEGP scheme, which has formed by merging the existing employment generation programmes - Rural Employment Generation Programme and Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana loans are given without any collateral. Through the scheme, the government has planned to reach out to 1 lakh entrepreneurs in 650 districts across the country during 2013-14 and also aims to train 40 lakh people through the primary technical training centres during the 12th Plan period.

The MSME sector contributes around 8% of the country's GDP, 45% of the manufactured output and provides employment to over 8 crore persons engaged in over 3.6 crore units. Meanwhile, the government has been taking steps to boost the sector’s growth. In the 12th Five-Year Plan, the government has increased Budget allocation for the sector to Rs 24,000 crore from Rs 11,000 crore in the previous five-plan period.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,357.40, up by 97.50 points or 1.56% after trading in a range of 6,415.25 and 6,345.00. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declining stocks on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SSLT up by 4.96%, ICICI Bank up by 4.64%, IndusInd Bank up by 4.07%, L&T up by 3.94% and NTPC up by 3.93%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 5.73%, Cipla down by 0.69%, Cairn India down by 0.54%, Lupin down by 0.33% and Tata Steel down by 0.30% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Seoul Composite up by 1.01%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.94%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.92%, KLSE Composite up by 0.86%, Nikkei 225 up by 2.29%, Hang Seng up by 0.29%, and Shanghai Composite added 0.05%. On the other hand, Straits Times down by 0.08% was the lone loser amongst Asian pack.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.18%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.33% and UK’s FTSE 100 inched higher 0.01%.