Benchmarks trim early gains

Indian equity benchmarks have trimmed early gains after Sensex striking 21,100 mark in initial deals weighed down by selling in auto and financials. However, domestic markets extending their rally for fifth straight day, made a positive start in early deals on Friday and are trading in the green buoyed by firm global cues. Some support also came in on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth net Rs 511.15 crore on February 26, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. The up-move were also supported by rally in technology and software counters as rupee depreciated on month-end dollar demand.

Sentiments remained up-beat after the US markets ended higher taking S&P 500 to record closing high, reacting to the Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee where she acknowledged the economic impact of the severe winter weather. Though, The Asian markets were trading mixed at this point of time with some of the indices trading marginally in red; the Japanese market was weighed down by the gain in yen.

Back home, on the sectoral front healthcare, software and technology witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while consumer durables remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 932 shares on the gaining side against 629 shares on the losing side while 93 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 20995.39; about 8 points higher compared to its previous closing of 20986.99, and touched a high and a low of 21120.25 and 20989.66 respectively. The index is currently trading at 21067.09, up by 80.10 points or 0.38%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 56.35% stocks advancing against 38.03% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.42% and Small cap gained 0.34%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Healthcare up by 1.54%, Metal up by 1.36%, IT up by 0.83%, Teck up by 0.75% and PSU up by 0.61%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.17% and Bankex down by 0.06% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 3.12%, Hindalco up by 2.85%, TCS up by 2.17%, Sun Pharma up by 2.09% and Tata Motors up by 2.01%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki was down by 4.01%, HDFC Bank was down by 1.30%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.97% and  Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.57% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Oil Secretary Vivek Rae has reported that India is willing to pay $1.5 billion to Iran to partially clear its payments in arrears for oil following the partial easing of western sanctions on Tehran. This amount is precisely half of what the country roughly owes for Iranian crude, i.e, $3 billion, which got accumulated after a previous payment mechanism through Turkey's Halkbank was stopped under pressure from sanctions

Iran, in a deal inked on November 24, 2014 with six major powers, secured access to $4.2 billion in oil revenues from a number of countries that had been frozen abroad. The funds, as per the deal, were payable in eight transfers on a schedule that started with a $550 million payment by Japan on February 1. While, South Korea is set to make two payments in March totalling $1 billion, the next schedule for payment would come on April 10.

India could pay as much as $450 million to Tehran, the capital and largest city of Iran on March 1, if it satisfies targets set down in the November deal, according to the payment schedule. It can then receive two further tranches of $550 million on March 7 and April 10 without having to meet further conditions. However, payments from April 15 will be contingent on confirmation that Iran has kept its commitment to dilute all of its 20 percent enriched uranium to no more than 5 percent enriched uranium.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,228.45; about 10 point lower as compared to its previous closing of 6,238.80, and has touched a high and a low of 6,274.25 and 6,228.10 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,258.00, up by 19.20 points or 0.31%. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 3.30%, Hindalco up by 2.95%, TCS up by 2.30%, Sun Pharma up by 1.89% and Tata Motors up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 4.11%, Grasim down by 1.57%, M&M down by 1.28%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.23% and Ranbaxy down by 1.13% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite dropped by 19.47 points or 0.95% to 2,027.88, Hang Seng tumbled 96.90 points or 0.42% to 22,731.28, Nikkei 225 slipped by 69.47 points or 0.47% to 14,853.64, Straits Times declined 6.90 points or 0.22% to 3,089.84 and Seoul Composite was down by 0.39 points or 0.02% to 1,978.04.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite rose 26.40 points or 0.58% to 4,595.34 and KLSE Composite soared 2.54 points or 0.14% to 1,834.20.