Benchmarks recover as Chidambaram presents interim Budget

Benchmarks equity indices after slipped into the negative territory with Finance Minister P Chidambaram presenting his interim Budget for FY15 have recovered the losses and got back in the green, in line with other global peers, and gained momentum on the back of gains in realty, IT and auto sectors. On the global front, all Asian equity benchmarks were trading in the green after a report showed China’s new credit increased to a record in January, while the Japanese market too have recovered from early losses after the nation’s economic growth missed estimates and the yen strengthened.

Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables, Bankex and Realty stocks, while selling was seen in Metal, Oil & Gas and Auto. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 992:832. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,400 and 6,050 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20419.24 up by 52.42 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 20481.76 and 20391.13. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.09% and Small cap index gained 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.02%, Bankex up by 0.62% Realty up by 0.54%, Power up by 0.53% and IT up by 0.47% while Metal down by 0.76%, Oil & Gas down by 0.23%, Auto down by 0.21%, and FMCG down by 0.21% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.84%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.96%, Axis Bank up by 1.16%, ONGC up by 0.96%, HDFC up by 0.95% and On the flip side, Coal India was down by 1.55%, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.27%, Hindalco Inds was down by 1.00%, RIL was down by 0.90% and Sun Pharma was down by 0.73% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Thwarting hopes of any early easing in restrictions to the gold imports, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has barred nominated banks and agencies from importing the precious metal in excess of their entitlements in first or second lot under the 80:20 schemes. As per RBI’s latest notification, import of gold in the third lot onwards should be lesser of the two-five times the export for which proof has been submitted or quantity of gold permitted to a nominated agency in the first or second lot.

Previously, the government under the 80:20 scheme in August 14, 2013, allowed nominated agencies to import gold, provided that 20 per cent of the inward shipment will be exported and the permission to import the next lot was granted only on the fulfillment of these export obligations.

However, in case of advance authorization (AA) and duty free authorization (DFIA) for gold import issued before August 14, 2013, RBI underscored that the 80:20 rule was not applicable for units in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Export Oriented Units (EoUs), Premier and Star Trading Houses.

Earlier, the government in order to contain rising gold import, had hiked import duty on gold thrice in 2013 to a total of 10%. While, the RBI rolled out certain restrictions, including the 80:20 scheme for imports.

 The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,062.00 up by 13.65 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 6,079.35 and 6,053.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 decliners on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.84%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 2.09%, HDFC up by 1.28%, AXIS Bank up by 1.28% and DLF up by 1.24%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 4.50%, Coal India down by 1.73%, Bajaj-Auto down by 1.04%, Reliance down by 0.95%, and Hindalco down by 0.85% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite gained11.13 points or 0.53% to 2,126.98, Hang Seng strengthened by 205.23  points or 0.92% to 22,503.64, Jakarta Composite spurted 35.59 points or 0.79% to 4,543.63, KLSE Composite rose 9.57 points or 0.53% to 1,828.94, Nikkei 225 surged 92.18 points or 0.64% to 14,405.21, Straits Times gained 23.59 points or 0.78% to 3,062.30, Seoul Composite jumped 7.23 points or 0.37% to 1,947.51 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 1.51 points or 0.02% to 8,515.19.