Benchmarks remain firm in green supported by IT stocks

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.35%, Consumer Durables up by 1.16%, Teck up by 1.02%, Capital Goods up by 0.65%, Auto up by 0.61% while Power down by 0.47%, Realty down by 0.46%, Oil & Gas down by 0.27%, Metal down by 0.07% and Health Care down by 0.02% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.73%, TCS up by 1.40%, Infosys up by 1.13%, Wipro up by 1.11% and Tata Steel up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.85%, Cipla was down by 1.81%, Hindalco was down by 1.40%, NTPC was down by 1.40% and Hero MotoCorp  was down by 1.32% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the latest emerging market consumer survey by Credit Suisse has ranked India at fifth position in terms of consumer confidence. The survey, based on nearly 16,000 face-to-face interviews with consumers across nine emerging economies, highlighted that optimism level in India slipped four percentage points over last year. The list was topped by China, while , Indonesia and Mexico remained at third and fourth position.

The survey stated that confidence among emerging market consumers has deteriorated during the last year with around 26 percent of respondents believing that their personal finances would improve over the next three months as compared to 28 percent a year ago. However, the survey found that there are signs of an underlying improvement, as more people now expect inflation to fall and are increasing spending on items. On area wise, the survey highlighted larger improvement in rural areas than urban in most categories with net balance of people expecting income to rise was (+) 6 percent in rural areas versus (-) 15 percent in urban areas.

In terms of spending categories, the  survey highlighted that there has been more growth in discretionary categories items such as cars and smartphones in 2013. Survey expected that the growth in discretionary categories items to remain firm, alongside other items such as watches and branded goods.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,070.15 up by 16.70 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 6,080.05 and 6,053.25. There were 22 stocks advancing against 27 stock declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.69%, HCL Tech up by 2.16%, TCS up by 1.48%, Ranbaxy up by 1.42% and Tata Steel up by 1.27%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.94%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.78%, Hero Moto Co down by 1.44%, PNB down by 1.39%, and Ultra Cement down by 1.26% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite increased 7.51 points or 0.36% to 2,093.58, Hang Seng surged 343.88 points or 1.59% to 21,923.14, Jakarta Composite strengthened 19.72 points or 0.44% to 4,470.47, KLSE Composite rose 4.32 points or 0.24% to 1,820.46, Straits Times spurted 17.93 points or 0.59% to 3,035.13, Seoul Composite gained 9.94 points or 0.52% to 1,933.24 and Taiwan Weighted was up 37.91 points or 0.45% to 8,429.86.