Markets continue to trade firm in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in afternoon session amid buying witnessed in healthcare, realty and oil and gas stocks. Buying was also witnessed in front line blue chip stocks including Cipla, Sun pharma and Tata Powers among others. Investors’ sentiments got support as Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked taxmen to step up collections in view of the ballooning fiscal deficit that is threatening to exceed the budgeted target. The government has planned to sell stakes in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) such as Indian Oil Corporation and Engineers India in January, which will ease pressure on fiscal deficit front. Further, firm Asian cues and appreciation in rupee value against the dollar also add to the optimistic sentiments. Except capital goods, all indices were trading in green on BSE with healthcare being the top gainer on BSE up by around 1.25%. On stock specific movement, Cipla, Sun Pharma and Tata Power were trading up by over 1.80%, while, BHEL, Infosys and Axis Bank were down by over 0.70% on BSE. Infosys stock continued to witness profit taking ahead of its third quarter earnings due for release on Friday, while, Tata Motors continued to witness short covering at lower levels after the stock corrected following dismal December sales.

Among other stocks, Videocon Industries is trading higher by nearly by 2% at Rs 182 after the company said it has completed the sale of its entire stake in a giant gas field off Mozambique to ONGC Videsh and Oil India. Apollo Tyres has surged around 6% to Rs 113 in early noon deals on back of heavy volumes on the bourses.

On global front, Asian shares were trading in green with Shanghai Composite up by 0.07% and Nikkei 225 up by 1.85% as encouraging trade data raised hopes of growth in the US. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading up their psychological 6,100 and 20,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,189 stocks traded, 1,412stocks advanced, while 637 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,772.23 up by 78.99 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 20,783.57 and 20,688.18. There were 19 stocks advancing against only 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.04%, while Small cap index up by 0.81%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.25%, Realty up by 0.97%, Oil and Gas up by 0.95%, Auto up by 0.90% and Bankex up by 0.70%. While, Capital goods down by 0.15% was the only losing index on BSE.  

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.43%, Sun Pharma up by 1.99%, Tata Powers up by 1.82%, Gail India up by 1.49% and RIL up by 1.30%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.12%, Infosys down by 0.73%, Axis Bank down by 0.70%, SSLT down by 0.69% and Wipro down by 0.68%.

Meanwhile, as per the HSBC business survey on emerging countries, services and manufacturing sectors across emerging economies recorded slower expansion in December, except in India where the both segments continued to witness contraction. The composite HSBC emerging markets index fell to 51.6 in December from 52.1 in November, showing a weaker rate of expansion. The survey indicated that manufacturing output continued to rise at a faster pace than services output which rose at the slowest rate in three months. New business inflows in global emerging markets rose for the fifth month running, while backlogs continued to expand marginally.

HSBC survey further added that inflationary pressures in emerging markets remained muted in December, with average input prices rising at the slowest pace since July, leading to the weakest increase in output prices in the reported month. HSBC Chief Global Economist Stephen King asserted that despite the relative weakness, there is no indication of any imminent descent into recession. HSBC Index value above 50 remains well above the traumatic levels recorded in 2008 and the first half of 2009, however, emerging economies are not expanding at the rapid rates recorded before the onset of the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, Stephen King added that in the longer term, prospects for the emerging world remain encouraging.

Among the largest emerging markets, the composite PMI numbers for China and Brazil witnessed a slight decline in December over November, but remained above the crucial 50 mark. The composite PMI for China declined from 52.3 in November to 51.2 in December and Brazil also witnessed similar trend and dropped slightly from 51.8 in November to 51.7 in December. However, for India, the HSBC composite index was recorded at 48.1 for December, down from 48.5 in November. Meanwhile, the HSBC Emerging Markets Future Output Index that reflects firms' expectations for activity in next 12 months fell to a six-month low in the reported month, reflecting weaker sentiment in both manufacturing and services. In major emerging markets, Brazil continued to post the strongest sentiment regarding anticipated output growth in 2014, while, Russian firms remained less optimistic than their counterparts in China and India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,189.95 up by 27.70 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 6,191.20 and 6,160.35. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 2.57%, Sun Pharma up by 2.36%, Cairn up by 2.19%, NMDC up by 1.91% and Tata Powers up by 1.82%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 0.94%, BPCL down by 0.91%, Grasim down by 0.83%, Infosys down by 0.77% and Axis Bank down by 0.73% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.07%, Nikkei 225 up by 1.85%, Hang Seng up by 1.19%, Straits Times up by 0.66%, KLSE Composite up by 0.54%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.51% and Seoul Composite up by 0.02%. While, Jakarta Composite down by 0.02%.