Benchmarks continue to trade firm in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade firm in afternoon session on F&O series expiry day amid buying witnessed in capital goods, consumer durables and healthcare stocks. Gains in the index heavyweights such as Gail India, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel among others also provided support to the markets. Investor were also seen piling up position in IT and healthcare stocks as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report on Private Equity (PE) investment in India highlighted that IT, ITeS and pharmaceuticals will continue to attract high PE investments given their strong export focus, particularly against a depreciating rupee. However, metal index on BSE was down almost 1.60% to hit a four-month low amidst concerns of slowdown in China. On stock specific movement, Gail India, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel were trading up by over 1.50%, while, SSLT, Tata Steel and Coal India were trading down by over 1.80% on BSE.

ABB India has soared nearly 8% to its 52-week high at Rs 731 on back of heavy volumes. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has moved higher by nearly 2% at around Rs 2,828 after the company said it has launched Sumatriptan Injection USP in the US. Sanofi India up nearly 2% at around Rs 2,686 after the company reported robust earnings with net profit rising over 100% during Q4’2013. 

On global front, Asian equity indices were trading mixed with Nikkei down by 0.55% and Straits Times down by 0.60% amid rising concerns over prevailing slowdown in China. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,200 and 20,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,208 stocks traded, 1,121 stocks advanced, while 973 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,913.21 up by 60.74 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 20,939.27 and 20,860.02. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.08%, while Small cap index up by 0.36%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.01%, Consumer Durables up by 0.72%, Healthcare up by 0.67%, FMCG up by 0.61% and Oil and Gas up by 0.35%. While, Metal down by 1.61% and Realty down by 0.90% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 3.06%, Sun Pharma up by 1.52%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.50%, Wipro up by 1.25% and SBI up by 1.18%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.84%, Tata Steel down by 1.98%, Coal India down by 1.87%, Tata power down by 1.17% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.89%.

Meanwhile, in order to strengthen corporate governance and curb misdoings at the management level, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) proposed new norms that will make mandatory for listed companies to seek approval of shareholders to divest shares in subsidiaries that bring in more than one-fifth of annual consolidated income. At present, divestment in major subsidiaries does not require the approval of shareholders.

The market regulator is of the view that company’s special resolution should be moved to get shareholders' nod and its new set of corporate governance norms for listed companies would come into effect from October. SEBI has proposed that all listed companies should have a policy to determine material subsidiaries and they should be disclosed to the stock exchanges. The market regulator would also proposed that a subsidiary shall be considered ‘material’ if the investment of the company in the unit exceeds 20 percent of its consolidated net worth as per the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year. Furthermore, the classification would also be applicable if the subsidiary generated 20 percent of the consolidated income of the company during the previous financial year.

SEBI also sought suggestions on the matter from various stakeholders and market advisory committees. SEBI was suggested that major subsidiaries should be defined and should include Indian, foreign and step-down units. Besides, it was also suggested that certain minimum amount of information about proposed disinvestment in subsidiaries such as financial details for the past three years should be disclosed in the notice for the meeting to seek shareholder approval for the resolution.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,214.70 up by 14.65 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 6,222.90 and 6,202.10. There were only 29 stocks advancing against 21 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Gail up by 3.46%, Kotak Bank up by 1.87%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.62%, Sun Pharma up by 1.49% and BPCL up by 1.38%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 3.53%, SSLT down by 2.76%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.41%, DLF down by 2.08% and JP Associates down by 1.95% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Hang Seng up by 0.09%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.10% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.45%. On the flip side, Nikkei down by 0.55%, Straits Times down by 0.60%, Seoul Composite down by 0.61%, Jakarta Composite down 0.50% and KLSE Composite was down by 0.32%.