Benchmarks wipe off their early losses in late morning

Benchmarks wiped off their early losses and were trading in green amid positive Asian cues. However, Investor remained cautious with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook update, where it has highlighted that India is likely to clock an economic growth rate of 4.6 percent this financial year and the expansion may improve to 5.4 percent in 2014-15. Investors also remained concerned on Urjit Patel committee’s report, which suggested that inflation should be the nominal anchor as far as the policy framework is concerned. The committee has suggested that the RBI should adopt the new CPI (consumer price index) as the measure of the nominal anchor for policy communication and the target for inflation should be set at 4 percent with a band of +/- 2 percent around it.

On the global front, Asian equity indices were trading in green, Chinese benchmarks edged higher by over one and a half percent, as cash rates in the mainland eased further after the Chinese central bank offered funds earlier this week to ease a cash squeeze. Back home, traders were buying, Metal, Healthcare and Power while, selling was seen in FMCG and Capital Goods on the BSE.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1016:746. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 21,200 and 6,300 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21277.58 up by 26.46 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 21281.19 and 21168.43. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.43% and Small cap index gained 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 0.85%, Healthcare up by 0.84%, Power up by 0.69%, TECK up by 0.46% and Oil & Gas up by 0.30%, while FMCG down by 0.96% and Capital Goods down by 0.36% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.95%, Tata Steel up by 1.88%, NTPC up by 1.72%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.60%, and Cipla up by 1.16%. On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.37%, SBI was down by 0.89%, L&T was down by 0.64%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.37% and  Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.32% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Indian economy is likely to grow at 4.6 percent in current financial year and the growth may improve to 5.4 percent by 2014-15. Presenting a sanguine picture of India's economic outlook, the IMF, in its World Economic Outlook update, has noted that growth in India has picked up after a favourable monsoon season and a higher export growth and is expected to grow further on strong structural policies supporting investment. Indian economic growth is likely to be at 6.4 percent in 2015-16, it added.

At present, Indian economy is struggling with all macro-economic indicators deteriorated. During April-September’ 2013-14, economic growth slipped to 4.6 percent from 5.3 percent in the same period last fiscal. Meanwhile, in the previous fiscal, India's economy slowed to a decade low of 5 percent owing to the global slowdown and domestic factors, like high interest rates. Further, India’s annual industrial (IIP) output growth contracted by 0.2% during the period April-November’ 2013-14 over the corresponding period of previous year.

Referring to the global economy’s growth, IMF reported that global activity strengthened during the second half of 2013 and is expected to improve further in 2014-15, largely on account of recovery in the advanced economies. IMF has projected global growth at around 3.7 percent in 2014 and 3.9 percent in 2015.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,318.85 up by 5.05 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 6,319.95 and 6,287.45. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 stock declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.97%, Tata Steel up by 1.93%, Lupin up by 1.93%, NTPC up by 1.72% and Hindalco up by 1.42%. On the flip side, Asian Paint down by 1.94%, ITC down by 1.57%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.51%, JP Associates down by 1.03% and Grasim down by 1.01% were the top losers on the index.

Most of Asian equity indices were trading in green; Nikkei 225 increased 28.67 points or 0.58% to 4,950.34, Seoul Composite was up by 1.74 points or 0.09% to 1,966.19, Shanghai Composite surged 33.53 points or 1.67% to 2,041.84, Hang Seng rose 17.61 points or 0.08% to 23,050.73, and Taiwan Weighted was up by 25.00 points or 0.29% to 8,624.90. On the flip side, KLSE Composite dipped 5.21 points or 0.29% to 1,810.13, Straits Times slipped 0.65 points or 0.01% to 3,132.11 and Jakarta Composite down by 5.31 points or 0.12% to 4,447.19.