Benchmarks pare their loss in late morning trade

Benchmarks equity indices have pared their initial loss and turned flat in late morning trade. Gain in rate sensitive realty and consumer durables were providing cushion to the markets from falling further. Investor‘s  sentiments got  some support as the CSO though kept its growth forecast for FY13-14 sub 5% percent but the estimates were better than the general expectations.  However, gains on the up-side remained capped as the HSBC's composite emerging markets index of manufacturing and services purchasing managers’ surveys slipping for the second straight month stood at 51.4 in January, the slowest pace in four months.

On the global front, Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green as the mixed US jobs data gave a sense that Fed may not be very aggressive in stimulus tapering in its forthcoming March 18 policy meeting. The Chinese market has taken the lead, trading up by over one and half a percent in early deals  despite the Chinese central bank saying that investors will have to tolerate further volatility in money market rates as it reins in credit growth. The Central bank signaled the borrowing costs will rise, underscoring the risk of defaults that could weigh on confidence and drag down growth.

Back home, traders were buying, Realty, Metal and Oil & Gas while, selling was seen in FMCG, Bankex and Power on the BSE. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1096:647. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,300 and 6,050 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20359.34 down by 17.22 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 20434.50 and 20336.15. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.35% and Small cap index down by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.14%, Metal up by 0.87%, Oil & Gas up by 0.64%, Healthcare up by 0.63% and Consumer Durables up by 0.53%, while FMCG down by 0.54%, Bankex down by 0.43%, Power down by 0.27% and  TECK down by 0.06% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.52%, BHEL up by 1.45%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.29%, Sun Pharma up by 1.23% and Wipro up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.90%, NTPC  was down by 1.62%,  Hindustan Unilever  was down by 1.54%, Gail India was down by 1.31% and  HDFC Bank down by 1.30% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, adding optimism to the economy’s advanced growth estimate by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman (PMEAC) C Rangarajan has stated that the decline in Indian economic growth has bottomed out and there is probability that gross domestic product (GDP) growth figure for 2013-14 will be revised upwards. PMEAC expects Indian economic growth at around 5.3 percent for the current fiscal.

The CSO pegged economic growth rate for 2013-14 at 4.9 percent which was tad higher than the general expectation of a growth of 4.7-4.8 percent. Rangarajan further added that as per the CSO estimate, the growth in second quarter of current fiscal will be more than 5 percent as Indian economy grew by 4.6 percent in the April-September period. Agriculture sector is likely to add significantly to country’s economic growth as CSO has projected a growth rate of 4.6 percent in agriculture and allied sectors in current fiscal. 

Indian economy’s growth slowed down to a decade low of 4.5 percent in the previous fiscal on account of low investment, weak domestic demand, rupee depreciation and global economic turmoil. Rising inflation too has become a hurdle for Indian economic growth as it has been eroding consumers and business confidence in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,057.40 down by 5.80 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 6,083.05 and 6,051.30. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stock declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 4.39%, IDFC up by 2.03%, Tata Steel up by 1.52%, HCL Tech up by 1.37% and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.25%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.93%, NTPC down by 1.88% , Hindustan Unilever down by 1.52%, HDFC Bank down by 1.40% and  GAIL down by 1.39% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite surged by 35.99 points or 1.76% to 2,080.49, Jakarta Composite gained 17.70 points or 0.40% to 4,484.36, KLSE Composite was up by 8.80 points or 0.49% to 1,817.39, Nikkei 225 moved up by 175.68 points or 1.21% to 14,638.09, Seoul Composite was up by 1.49 points or 0.08% to 1,923.99 and Taiwan Weighted gained 27.84 points or 0.33% to 8,415.19and Hang Seng was up by 13.35 points or 0.06 % to 21,650.20.

On the other hand, Straits Times was lower by 3.49 points or 0.12% to 3,009.65.