Benchmarks continue firm trade in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in afternoon session amid buying witnessed in frontline blue chip stocks including Hindalco Inds, BHEL and Axis Bank among others. Further, market gains were also led by gains in rate sensitive stocks such as realty, capital goods and banking stocks as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept key policy rates unchanged citing the need to push sagging economic growth. Realty was the top gainer on BSE up by 3.25% followed by consumer durables and capital goods stocks both up by over 1.40%. Further, firm global cues and appreciation in rupee value against dollars also added to the optimistic sentiments. Auto stock were trading nearly 0.60% higher as PSU OMCs hiked the petrol price on Friday by 41 paise a litre and diesel rates by 10 paise. On stock specific movements, Hindalco Inds, BHEL and Axis Bank were trading up by over 1.90%, while, Infosys, Tata Power and HDFC were trading down by over 1% on BSE.

L&T were trading nearly 1% as L&T Infrastructure Development Projects (L&T IDPL), has submitted an application to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) seeking approval in relation to a proposed FDI in L&T IDPL. Among other shares, shares in United Spirits Ltd fell nearly 6% after a court ordered the annulment of the sale of the Indian spirits maker to British group Diageo.

On global front, Asian markets were trading in green with Hang Seng up by 0.51% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.07%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading up their psychological 6,300 and 21,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,144 stocks traded, 1,332 stocks advanced, while 694 stocks declined on the BSE.    

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21,155.73 up by 76.01 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 21,207.89 and 21,080.54. There were 22 stocks advancing against only 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.18%, while Small cap index up by 1.06%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.25%, Consumer Durables up by 1.55%, Capital Goods up by 1.41%, Metal up by 1.34% and Power up by 0.74%. While IT down by 0.86% and Teck down by 0.65% were losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Inds up by 3.11%, BHEL up by 2.54%, Axis Bank up by 1.96%, Hero Motocorp up by 1.63% and SSLT up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.85%, Tata Power down by 1.21%, HDFC down by 0.66%, TCS down by 0.46% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.37%.

Meanwhile, the Highway and Road Ministry expects stalled road projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore to start getting executed from next month onwards as report of C Rangarajan Committee for restructuring the annual premium owed to the government by developers of stressed road projects is likely to be accepted by month-end. The panel, headed by PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan, was set up in November to decide the modalities of the premium rescheduling policy, while final decision could be implemented by the highways ministry after the Cabinet approval.

As per the Rangarajan panel report, 75 percent of the premium amount payable by the road developers to the government will be restructured in the first three years of the contract. Currently, developers pay some portion of premium to the government in the first year of the project which keeps increasing in the subsequent years. Companies make payment to the the National Highways Authority of India under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) mode. The move is likely to provide relief to a large number of players such as GMR, GVK and Ashoka Buildcon, whose projects have been facing delays on account of high premium.

The development of infrastructure is a most critical prerequisite to boost the economy’s growth and the ministry of road transport and highways is taking measures to revive the growth in highway road projects in the country. The government has also entered into the 'Public Private Partnership (PPP)' programme in order to bring adequate resources for setting up of a sound and efficient infrastructural base. Meanwhile, it has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,301.85 up by 27.60 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 6,310.75 and 6,266.95. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 4.30%, Jindal Steel up by 3.21%, PNB up by 3.08%, Hindalco Inds up by 3.01% and BHEL up by 2.32%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.89%, Tata Powers down by 1.16%, Power Grid down by 0.86%, HDFC down by 0.85% and Lupin down by 0.71% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng up by 0.51%, Seoul Composite up by 0.66%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.57%, Straits Times up by 0.44% and Shanghai Composite up by 0.50%. While, Jakarta Composite down by 0.85% and KLSE Composite down by 0.13%.