Benchmarks continue firm trade; Nifty gyrates around 6300 mark

Indian equities continued its firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line counters. The sentiments were on positive mood on Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan comments, who underscored that he expects, a fall in vegetable prices to likely ease the headline inflation and retail inflation to 6.5% and 9.20% respectively in December. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Capital Goods and Metal stocks while selling was witnessed in IT and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Yes Bank was trading in green after it raised $150-million long-term loan from International Finance Corporation for a tenor of up to seven years to scale up its loan portfolio for the SME sector. Infosys was trading in red as top management exodus continues in the country’s largest IT Company. On Friday after market hours, Infosys announced resignation of its director V Balakrishnan. This is the eight top level exit at Infosys since June.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets were trading mixed. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,250 and 21,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1471:851 while 150 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21142.57, up by 62.85 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 21207.89 and 21080.54. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 1.33% and 1.15% respectively.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.91%, Capital Goods up by 1.72%, Metal up by 1.57%, Power up by 1.20% and PSU up by 1.18% while on the other hand, IT down by 0.83% and TECK down by 0.66%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 3.11%, BHEL up by 2.96%, ICICI Bank up by 1.59%, Hero Motocorp up by 1.58% and Axis Bank were up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.16%, HDFC down by 1.37, Tata Power down by 1.05%, Coal India down by 0.55% and TCS down by 0.30%.

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 6,297.50, up by 23.25 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 6,310.75 and 6,266.95. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 5.31%, Jindal Steel up by 4.79%, PNB up by 3.78%, Hindalco Industries up by 3.06% and BHEL up by 2.68%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.15%, HDFC down by 1.60%, Tata Powers down by 1.16%, Lupin down by 0.95% and Coal India down by 0.47% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng up by 0.48%, Seoul Composite up by 0.68%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.57%, Straits Times up by 0.57% and Shanghai Composite up by 0.24%.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.52% and KLSE Composite down by 0.30%. Nikkei Stock Exchange was closed for the day on account of Emperor’s Day holiday.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.04%, Germany’s DAX added 0.32% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.42%.