Benchmarks maintain upbeat trend in late morning

Indian equity benchmarks continue to maintain the upbeat trend in late morning deals ahead of the monthly derivatives contract expiry later during the day. Markets are likely to remain in volatile, as traders will roll over positions in the futures and options (F&O) segment from the February series to March series. The expiry is scheduled today as the markets will be closed on Thursday due to Mahashivratri. Market participants’ sentiments remained boost as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 423.41 crore on February 25, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Gains on up-side remained capped as the rupee deprecated against the US dollar in early trade.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed but the regional indices were concerned that the world’s second-largest economy China is slowing as financial stresses increase. Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Healthcare stocks, while selling was seen in Metal, Realty and PSU. Stocks related to NBFC edged higher as the Reserve Bank of India moved closer to granting new banking licences as a panel headed by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan finalized a list of firms for the central bank to consider.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1095:667. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,800 and 6,150 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20913.27 up by 60.80 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 20939.27 and 20860.02. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 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 0.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.23%, Capital Goods up by 1.02%, Healthcare up by 0.62%, FMCG up by 0.58%, and Power up by 0.43%, while Metal down by 1.20%, Realty down by 0.63%, PSU down by 0.36% and Oil & Gas down by 0.10% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 1.37%, Wipro up by 1.32%, BHEL up by 1.10%, Sun Pharma up by 1.10%, and SBI up by 1.01%. On the flip side, SSLT was down by 2.06%, Coal India was down by 1.62%, Tata Steel was down by 1.50%, ONGC was down by 0.62% and  Tata Power was down by 0.62% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Private Equity (PE) investment in India increased by 74 percent to $2.12 billion in 76 deals during the last quarter of 2013 as compared to $1.22 billion from 109 deals recorded in the same period a year ago. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) MoneyTree India report, a quarterly study of private equity investment activity based on data provided by Venture Intelligence, the PE investment in reported quarter was highest since 2007 despite a 30 percent fall in the volume of deals. However, PE exits doubled with an exit value of $1.13 billion from 20 deals during Q4’2013. The PE investment value was recorded at $1.78 billion in Q3’2013.

On sector wise PE investment, Information technology-enabled services (ITeS) sector was the most active in terms of value and volume with 37 deals worth $959 million in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2013. Furthermore, the sector has shown a 41% increase in value with two additional deals in quarter under review as compared to previous one. Around 80 percent of the deal value was recorded in IT and healthcare space, while, activity levels in other sectors were largely muted. The healthcare and life sciences sector witnessed a surge of almost four times in investments value from $191 million in the previous quarter to $729 million in Q4’2013.

Further, PwC expects that momentum witnessed in Q4 will continue to remain in early 2014 and IT, ITeS and pharmaceuticals will continue to attract investments given their strong export focus, particularly against a depreciating rupee.

Private equity capital is not quoted on a public exchange and consists of investors and funds that make investments directly into private companies or conduct buyouts of public companies that result in a delisting of public equity. The majority of private equity consists of institutional investors and accredited investors who can commit large sums of money for long periods of time. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,217.40 up by 17.35 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 6,222.90 and 6,202.10. There were 26 stocks advancing against 23 decliners while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Kotak Bank up by 1.67%, GAIL up by 1.61%, Sun Pharma up by 1.20%, Wipro up by 1.16% and Ambuja Cement up by 1.13%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 2.77%, JP Associate down by 2.08%, SSLT down by 2.06%, Coal India down by 1.60% and DLF down by 1.52% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite increased by 2.84 points or 0.14% to 2,037.06, Hang Seng gained 41.69 points or 0.19% to 22,358.89, Seoul Composite surged 1.87 points or 0.10% to 1,966.73 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 40.70 points or 0.47% to 8,616.32. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite slipped 26.45 points or 0.58% to 4,550.84, KLSE Composite decreased by 6.22 points or 0.34% to 1,827.53, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 53.03 points or 0.35% to 14,998.57 and Straits Times was down by 14.76 points or 0.48% to 3,088.86.