Benchmarks continue firm trade in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in the afternoon session amid buying in IT, auto and teck stocks. Buying was also witnessed in index heavyweights such as Wipro, TCS and ITC among others. IT stocks were trading higher by 3-4% on BSE as eight IT domestic exporters reported a combined 37% year-on-year growth in net profit and 27% net sales growth. Investor remained optimistic over Indian IT sector growth outlook after Wipro projected average revenue of $1,729 million from IT services in Q4 FY14. However, oil and gas index was the top loser down by around 0.79% on BSE as Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has announced that the quota of subsidised cooking cylinders will be hiked to 12 from 9 per household. On stock specific information, Wipro, TCS and Tata Motors were trading up by over 1.85%, while, RIL, Tata Steel and Tata Power were trading down by over 0.60% on BSE. ITC was trading up by 1.5% after it posted a year-on-year rise of 16% in its net profit at Rs 2,385 crore for Q3 FY14. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries was down around 1.2% over the concerns that net profit would have been lower-than-estimated without sharp growth in other income.

On global front, Asian shares were trading mixed with Seoul Composite up by 0. 42%, while Shanghai Composite down by 0.92%.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading up their psychological 6,200 and 21,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,207 stocks traded, 1221 stocks advanced, while 856 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21,175.51 up by 111.89 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 21,209.57 and 21,001.13. There were 20 stocks advancing against only 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.65%, while Small cap index up by 0.62%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.65%, Teck up by 1.42%, Auto up by 1.13%, Bankex up by 0.68% and FMCG up by 0.62%. While, Oil and Gas down by 0.79%, Realty down by 0.03% and Metal down by 0.01% were the losing indices on BSE.  

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 4.31%, TCS up by 2.77%, Tata Motors up by 1.85%, M&M up by 1.32% and ITC up by 1.28%. On the flip side, RIL down by 1.28%, Tata Steel down by 0.69%, Tata Power down by 0.64%, SSLT down by 0.62% and Hindustan Unilever Bank down by 0.48%.

Meanwhile, giving some respite to Indian households, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily stated that the quota of subsidised cooking cylinders will be hiked to 12 from 9 per household. Oil Ministry will soon move the proposal to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for consideration.

At present, 89.2 percent of the 15 crore Indian LPG consumers use up to nine cylinders in a year and only 10 per cent have to buy the additional requirement at the market price. If the LPG subsidy quota is increased to 12, about 97 percent of the LPG consumers would be covered by subsidised LPG. Under the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) scheme, which was rolled-out in country’s 289 districts, cooking gas consumers get subsidized advance money in their bank accounts to help them purchase a 14.2-kg LPG cylinder at market price. At present, the subsidised LPG cylinder costs Rs 414 while the market price per bottle comes to Rs 1,258.

However, the proposal to increase the number of subsidised cylinders will put pressure on the government’s fiscal position with additional fuel subsidy burden of Rs 3,300 crore-5,800 crore. India's fiscal deficit reached to Rs 5.1 lakh crore or 94% of the targeted budgetary estimate of Rs 5.42 lakh crore in the April-November period of current fiscal. Earlier, in order to cut the LPG subsidy, the government had initially capped the supply of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to six per household and then raised the quota to nine in the previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,291.10 up by 29.45 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 6,304.95 and 6,243.35. There were 35 stocks advancing against 25 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Wipro up by 4.24%, TCS up by 3.01%, HCL Tech up by 2.45%, Tata Motors up by 1.51% and ITC up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Reliance down by 1.47%, Grasim down by 1.35%, Tata Steel down by 1.02%, NMDC down by 1.00% and SSLT down by 0.85% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Seoul Composite up by 0. 42%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.30%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.24%. While, Shanghai Composite down by 0.92%, KLSE Composite down by 0.18%, Nikkei 225 down by 0.52%, Straits Times down by 0.57% and Hang Seng down by 0.89%.