Benchmarks returns to green in late morning trade

Bout of volatility was being witnessed on the street, benchmarks equity indices regained positive terrain after slipping into the red in morning deals,  amid a firm trade at Asian bourses and as some buying activity emerged after a sharp fall in trade a day ago. Investor’s sentiments remained upbeat as the rupee appreciated against the US dollar. Weak US retail sales data has raised some investors' expectations for a slower reduction in the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy stimulus programme. Some support to the market also come from the report that the FIIs bought shares worth Rs 399.40 crore as per the provisional data from the National Stock Exchange.  However, there was some concern with a United Nations report saying that government may not achieve its fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent for the year.

On the global front, all Asian equity benchmarks were trading in the green, tailing the gains in the US markets, though there was concern about the Federal Reserve’s stimulus cuts, a slowdown in China and volatility in developing markets.

Back home, traders were buying, Teck, IT and Oil & Gas stocks, while selling was seen in Metal, Capital Goods and Realty. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1024:705. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,200 and 6,000 levels respectively. The telecom stocks edged higher as 2G telecom spectrum auction after 10 days and 68 rounds of fierce bidding ended raising Rs 61,162 crore for the government and the incumbent operators managed to protect their turf, albeit at a huge cost.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20206.72 up by 13.37 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 20313.02 and 20166.08. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.22% and Small cap index gained 0.22%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Teck up by 0.86%, IT up by 0.70%, Oil & Gas up by 0.42%, Auto up by 0.32%, and Healthcare up by 0.22%, while Metal down by 0.46%, Capital Goods down by 0.42%, Realty down by 0.23%, FMCG down by 0.17%, and Bankex down by 0.16% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.31%, Tata Motors up by 1.66%, Gail India up by 1.18%, Sun Pharma up by 1.02% and TCS up by 0.97%. On the flip side, BHEL was down by 2.41%, SSLT was down by 1.80%, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.64%, Hindalco was down by 1.35%, and  Cipla was down by 0.94% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, presenting not so rosy picture of the economy and also echoing RBI’s views, the government in its ‘Mid-Year Economic Review’ tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday acknowledged that high inflation rate was the biggest risk to growth outlook and pressed the need for bringing down the headline wholesale price inflation (WPI) below 6%.  Besides this, it made note of limited ability of RBI had to extend monetary policy support to growth revival in the background of high inflation.

On the positive side, the report noted that despite cuts in government spending, private consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital formation had increased, indicating that the structural reforms undertaken by the government had started to bear fruits. The document highlighted that a decisive pick-up in economic activity could be gradually expected in the Indian economy over the next few quarters.

As per the review, the Indian economy grew by 4.6% in the first half of 2013-14 (Apr-Mar), compared with 5.3% in the same period of the previous fiscal. Further, the review pegged India’s 2013-14 growth at 5.0%, in line with Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) advance estimate released last month. However, it also said that it may take some more time for the economy to reach its higher growth potential.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,002.65 up by 1.55 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 6,033.30 and 5,990.80. There were 24 stocks advancing against 25 decliners while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.28%, Tata Motors up by 1.80%, IndusInd Bank up by 1.30%, HCL Tech up by 1.25% and Gail up by 1.25%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.80%, Ambuja Cements down by 1.95%, SSLT down by 1.93%, Hindalco down by 1.70%, and Ultra Cement down by 1.60% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite added 10.51 points or 0.50% to 2,108.91, Hang Seng increased 88.24 points or 0.40% to 22,253.77, Jakarta Composite surged 11.49 points or 0.26% to 4,503.15, KLSE Composite gained 8.03 points or 0.44% to 1,824.17, Seoul Composite rose 15.23 points or 0.79% to 1,942.19 ,Taiwan Weighted was up by 76.56 points or 0.90% to 8,544.26, and Straits Times was up by 11.90 points or 0.39% to 3,029.10.   

On the other hand Nikkei 225 was down by 202.69 points or 1.39% to 14,332.05.