Benchmarks trade in fine-fettle post Interim budget; Auto stocks hog limelight

After recovering from day’s low, benchmark equity indices continue to hold their modest gains post Chidambaram in the Interim Budget 2014-15, underscored that fiscal deficit for the current financial year would be contained at 4.6 per cent of GDP, while announcing that the fiscal deficit was at 4.9% of GDP in the previous financial year, which was well-in line with street’s expectation. Off day’s low, Sensex and Nifty, were gyrating above the crucial 20,400 and 6,050 levels respectively, with gains of close to two tenth of a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices were showing mixed performance at this point of time.

On the global front, Asian stocks were up, with a regional benchmark indices poised to gain for the eighth time in nine days, after China’s new credit increased to a record in January, boosting optimism the world’s second-largest economy can maintain its growth momentum.

Back home, sectorally, banking, Power and HealthCare stocks were the major gainers of the session. While, Auto stocks sped up after FM announced excise duty cut for the sector. The excise duty is cut to 8% from 12% for small car, Motorcycle, Scooters; it has been slashed to 24% from 30% for SUVs. On the flip side, Consumer Durables, realty and metal counters were the top laggards of the session. Meanwhile, fertilizer stocks, barring RCF, were trading in red after FM pegged FY15 fertilizer subsidy at Rs 76000 crore for FY15. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which outnumbered advances in the ratio of 1207:1009; while 151 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20410.86, up by 44.04 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 20481.76 and 20338.95. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.37% and Small cap index inched up by 0.01%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables down by 1.16%, Metal down by 1.29%, Oil & Gas down by .74%, PSU down by 0.55% and Realty down by 0.32%, while Bankex up by 0.63%, Power up by 0.54%, HealthCare up by 0.38%, Auto up by 0.23% and IT up by 0.05% were the top gaining sectoral indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.54%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.92%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.45%, HDFC up by 1.40% and HDFC Bank up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Hindalco Inds down by 1.75%, RIL down by 1.32%, Coal India down by 1.29%, Wipro up by 0.86% and Sun Pharma was down by 0.83% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, in the backdrop of the last interim budget of the UPA-II, has said that the new government will inherit a better economy with comfortable inflation and stable external sector which would revive growth and investments. The government has already taken a number of steps and this is acknowledged now that the effort to setup a cabinet committee on investments has led to a large number of clearances being taken out of the way.

Ahluwalia said that “There will not be an external instability. The new government will inherit a Current Account Deficit (CAD) which is very comfortable. Foreign exchange reserves are extremely comfortable. I think there is very positive attitude towards India.”

Explaining his points Ahluwalia said that the government took preventive steps leading to the current account deficit (CAD) expectations to fall to 2.5 percent and indications are consistent with the expectation that the next year, i.e. 2014-2015, the economy is well set to put in a better performance both on the growth side and in terms of external pressures. However, he also said that on the fiscal side, one should never think that what they have done is perfect but it will be completely wrong to say that all we did was throw the fiscal prudence out of the way, which is just not the case.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,058.30, up by 9.95 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 6,079.35 and 6,038.30. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 decliners on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 4.40%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 2.02%, HDFC up by 1.58%, Lupin up by 1.52% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.38%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 4.57%, JP Associates down by 2.05%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.75%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.42% and Reliance down by 1.34% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite gained 0.90%, Hang Seng strengthened 1.03%, Jakarta Composite spurted 0.91%, KLSE Composite rose 90.47%, Nikkei 225 surged 0.56%, Straits Times gained 0.92%, Seoul Composite jumped 0.31% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.07%.