Benchmarks edge higher in later morning

Indian equity benchmarks edged higher in later morning deals led by an upmove in financial, consumer durable and metal stocks. Market participate sentiments remained upbeat  on reports that the government is considering a proposal to allow companies to issue depository receipts like ADR and GDR against debt instruments, in a bid to deepen financial markets. Besides, the option of giving ADR and GDR holders voting right to make such securities more attractive to foreign investors, too is being considered. Some support also came from report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 198.53 crore on March 3, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Nevertheless, gains on up-side remained capped as the rupee deprecated against the US dollar in early trade.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly lower at this point of time, led by Chinese market which down by around a percent ahead of the National People’s Congress annual meeting starting tomorrow. Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables, Metal and Bankex stocks, while selling was seen in Healthcare, Realty and Auto. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1160:734. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 21,000 and 6,200 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21026.31 up by 79.66 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 21044.28 and 20940.39. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.71% and Small cap index gained 0.69%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 2.02%, Metal up by 1.60%, Bankex up by 0.66%, Oil & Gas up by 0.62% and PSU up by 0.55%, while Healthcare down by 0.62%, Realty down by 0.53% and Auto down by 0.41% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 2.84%, SSLT up by 2.47%, Tata Power up by 1.92%, Tata Steel up by 1.52% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.11%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.07%, Sun Pharma was down by 1.06%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.95%, and Hero MotoCorp  was down by 0.72% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government has received Rs.18,267 crore upfront spectrum payment from telecom companies, which was about Rs.30 crore less than the bids received from seven companies in the spectrum auction last month owing to the unavailability of radiowaves in some parts of the service areas. However, the amount received was about 61 percent higher than the government’s set target of about Rs.11,333 crore for the current fiscal. The government received bids worth Rs.62,162 crore in the auction for 1800 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands in last month.

The seven winning telecom firms of recently held spectrum auction have to pay 33 per cent upfront for the 1800 Mhz bank and 25 per cent for the 900 Mhz band, while, rest of the amount is to be paid in yearly instalments after two years with about 10 per cent interest. Vodafone, the biggest winner of spectrum, had to make an upfront payment of about Rs.5,582 crore; Airtel Rs.5,425 crore; Idea Rs.3,240 crore; Reliance Jio Rs.3,648; Telewings (Uninor) Rs.290 crore; Aircel Rs.69 crore and RCom Rs.54 crore.

The high spectrum payment will help the government to contain the widening fiscal deficit, which has crossed the FY 14 set target of Rs 5.33 lakh crore or 4.8 percent of GDP in the first ten months of the 2013/14 financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,244.70 up by 23.25 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 6,247.00 and 6,215.70. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 decliners while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.98%, SSLT up by 2.49%, IDFC up by 2.15%, Tata Power up by 1.66% and Tata Steel up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 1.46%, DLF down by 1.44%, HCL Tech down by 1.20%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.01% and Sun Pharma down by 1.00% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined by 14.87 points or 0.72% to 2,060.37, Jakarta Composite slipped 7.23 points or 0.16% to 4,576.98, KLSE Composite dropped 5.06 points or 0.28% to 1,819.63, Seoul Composite contracted by 9.92 points or 0.49% to 1,955.15  and  Taiwan Weighted was down by 28.69 points or 0.33% to 8,573.39. On the flip side, Hang Seng surged by 75.55 points or 0.34% to 22,576.22, Nikkei 225 soared 47.33 points or 0.29% to 14,693.32 and Straits Times was up by 6.34 points or 0.21% to 3,093.98.