Benchmarks continue to trade on higher note in late morning

Benchmarks were trading on a higher note led by continued buying by funds and retail investors amid a firming trend on other Asian bourses after Friday’s gain in the US markets, as economic growth figures came in well above expectations, influenced the trading sentiment. Some support also came in from report that indirect-tax collections grew by 5% in the April-November period of this fiscal, crossing Rs 3 lakh crore mark. The market sentiment was also boosted by data showing that foreign funds remained buyers of Indian stocks on Friday. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 990.19 crore on Friday, 20 December 2013, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in the green terrain at this point of time, taking cues from the US markets and, as the International Monetary Fund said that it’s raising its outlook for the world’s largest economy. Public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) viz, BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher after they hiked petrol prices on Friday by 41 paise a litre following the government’s decision to raise commission paid to petrol pump dealers and firming global oil rates. Simultaneously, diesel rates were increased by 10 paise per litre due to a hike in dealers’ commission.

Back home, traders were buying, Realty, Consumer Durables and Metal, while selling was seen in IT, Teck and FMCG on the BSE. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1104: 605. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,700 and 6,150 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21175.15 up by 95.43 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 21207.89 and 21080.54. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.04% and Small cap index gained 1.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.09%, Consumer Durables up by 1.81%, Metal up by 1.50%, Capital Goods up by 1.39%, and Bankex up by 0.93%, while IT down by 0.24%, Teck down by 0.13% and FMCG down by 0.02% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 3.36%, BHEL up by 1.96%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.84%, SSLT up by 1.68% and Tata Steel up by 1.64%. On the flip side, Infosys was down by 1.42%, Tata Power was down by 1.10% , TCS was down by 0.36% , Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.30% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.30% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Amid rising concerns over declining gems and jewellery exports, Commerce Ministry has sought for easing restrictions on import of gold, which was imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in order to check the rising Current Account Deficit (CAD) of the country. Tthe RBI had imposed curbs on import of gold in August and also laid down various pre-conditions for inward shipment of the precious metal such as 80/20 rule under which 20% of all gold imports by importers has to be re-exported. The government has also raised the imports duty on gold, platinum and silver to 10%, while on jewellery it has been increased to 15%.

Gems and jewellery sector, which is a major consumer of imported gold, accounts for about 15 per cent of country’s total exports. Commerce Secretary S R Rao, in a letter to the government has highlighted that exports of gems and jewellery has been affected by RBI's strict norms on precious metal imports and the commerce department is repeatedly receiving representations from stakeholders seeking to ease norms for gold imports. Furthermore, Rao pointed out that the prohibition imputed by the Department of revenue based on the RBI circular does not appear to be in the prescribed order of Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), stating that country’s exports should not be impacted owing to imports restriction.   

Indian exports, after witnessing double digit growth over the past four consecutive months grew marginally by 5.86% to $24.61 billion in November from $23.25 billion in the same month of previous year particularly owing to a fall in the shipments of gems and jewellery and rough diamonds. Gems and jewellery exports, during the April-October period stood at $24 billion, accounting for 14 per cent of total outward shipments

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,305.05 up by 30.80 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 6,310.35 and 6,266.95. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stock declines on the index.  

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.26%, DLF up by 3.22%, PNB up by 3.20%, Jindal Steel up by 2.97%, and BHEL up by 1.81%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.34%, Tata Power down by 1.05%, TCS down by 0.38%, Lupin down by 0.33% and Coal India down by 0.32%, were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 8.20 points or 0.39% to 2,092.99, Hang Seng increased 160.49 points or 0.70% to 22,972.67,  Straits Times jumped 9.98 points or 0.32% to 3,104.46, Seoul Composite strengthened 13.57 points or 0.68% to 1,996.92 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 58.62 points or 0.70% to 8,467.15.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declined 33.74 points or 0.80% to 4,161.82 and KLSE Composite was down by 2.82 points or 0.15% to 1,835.21.