Benchmarks trade firm in green ahead of IIP data

Benchmarks equity indices were trading higher in late morning amid a firm trend in the global markets and ahead of industrial production (IIP) data for December, to be released later in the day. Investor’s sentiments remained upbeat as the rupee appreciated against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the American currency by exporters.  On the global front, Most of the Asian equity indices were in green, reacting positively to the widening trade surplus in China, falling industry activity index in Japan and a positive reaction by investors to the US Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen’s Congressional testimony.

Back home, traders were buying, Capital Goods, Bankex and Realty stocks, while selling was seen in Metal on the BSE. The railways related stocks such as Kalindee Rail Nirman, Titagarh Wagons and Texmaco Rail Engineers edged higher ahead of the interim rail budget. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1068:655. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,400 and 6,100 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20497.69 up by 134.32 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 20506.51 and 20429.83. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53% and Small cap index gained 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.24%, Bankex up by 1.13%, Realty up by 1.06%, Auto up by 1.04%, and Oil & Gas up by 0.97%, while Metal down by 0.95% was the only loser index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 2.66%, ICICI Bank up by 1.93%, Tata Motors up by 1.76%, Sun Pharma up by 1.43%, and RIL up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Tata Steel was down by 2.65%, Coal India was down by 1.24%, SSLT was down by 0.98%, Cipla was down by 0.87% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.77% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary panel, headed by senior BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has rejected the bill on micro finance institutions, which sought to empower the Reserve Bank as the regulator, by giving it the authority to fix interest rates ceiling on loans to be provided by MFIs.

The committee, which was not in favour of the draft legislation to regulate MFIs, will soon submit its report on the bill to the Parliament. The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in May, 2012 and was later referred to the committee for perusal.

The bill, which was drafted against the backdrop of problems faced by borrowers of MFIs in Andhra Pradesh and other states, provides for compulsory registration of MFIs with the RBI and is most likely to be lapse with dissolution of House.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,101.00 up by 38.30 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 6,103.10 and 6,080.35. There were 35 stocks advancing against 14  decliners, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Gail up by 2.64%, HCL Tech up by 2.22%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.16%, ICICI Bank up by 1.98%, BPCL up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.53%, Asian Paint down by 1.77%, Ranbaxy down by 1.54%, Coal India down by 1.26% and SSLT down by 1.01% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite added 1.24 points or 0.06% to 2,104.91, Hang Seng spurted 232.77 points or 1.06% to 22,195.75, Jakarta Composite gained 15.78 points or 0.35% to 4,485.97, Nikkei 225 increased by 95.10 points or 0.65% to 14,813.44, Straits Times strengthened by 14.38 points or 0.47% to 3,043.48, Seoul Composite rose 7.23 points or 0.37% to 1,939.29 and Taiwan Weighted was up 69.70 points or 0.83% to 8,500.26.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite declined by 1.38 points or 0.08% to 1,822.79.