Benchmarks add gains; Realty, Power pulls

Indian equities added gains to continue firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on positive note from the early trade after India’s current account deficit (CAD) fell sharply to $4.2 billion, or 0.9 percent of GDP, in the December quarter of 2013-14 on the back of rise in exports and gold imports curbs. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Power and Metal stocks. In scrip specific development, Financial Technologies (India) was locked at upper circuit limit after Bank of America-Merrill Lynch unit bought a 0.51% stake in the trading software provider via a bulk deal. ABG Shipyard was trading firm after the board of directors convened an extraordinary general meeting on March 29 for increasing authorized share capital. AstraZeneca Pharma India was trading in red, after the board of directors on March 5 deferred the delisting proposal.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets were too trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,350 and 21,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1605:955 while 149 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21475.17, up by 198.31 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 21480.53 and 21329.88. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks with quiet a margin; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.27%, while Small cap index surged by 1.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.76%, Power up by 2.68%, Metal up by 2.10%, PSU up by 1.85% and Oil & Gas up by 1.81%. On the other hand, there were no losers on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 4.20%, Hindalco Industries up by 3.55%, ICICI Bank was up 3.31%, SSLT up by 2.58% and ONGC up by 2.51%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.82%, Wipro down by 0.70%,  Tata Motors down by 0.68%, TCS down by 0.36% and Sun Pharma down by 0.20% were the major losers on Sensex.

Meanwhile, according to the industry body Assocham, India’s trade with Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations is likely to decline by 15 percent if the prevailing political turmoil between Ukraine and Russia escalates and stretches over a longer period of time. At present Ukraine is India’s second largest trading partner in the region after Russia and is also the gateway for country’s exports to a number of other CIS countries.

Assocham study found that trade between India and the CIS countries declined by over eight percent during April-January’ FY14 in the current fiscal adding that India's bilateral trade with Ukraine during the reported period will be around $2 billion facing a shortfall of about 36 percent as compared to the last fiscal year. On sector front, industry body stated that pharmaceuticals and electrical machinery industry could get hit the most on account of the current turmoil as these are the top exporters to the CIS region.

Ongoing political turmoil between Ukraine and Russia would also prove a setback to the recent efforts being taken by Commerce Ministry to promote exports to former members of the erstwhile Soviet Union. Ministry had decided to organize 14 India shows in the next 14 months in the key countries of CIS to enhance exports. During April-January’FY14, value of exports increased by 5.71% to $257.09 billion from a year earlier. Prevailing turmoil is also likely to impact India’s imports as Ukraine is an important supplier of edible oil, petroleum products and fertiliser to India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,390.65, up by 62.00 points or 0.98% after trading in a range of 6,392.45 and 6,339.70. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declining ones on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associates up by 5.37%, DLF up by 4.94%, BHEL up by 4.40%, Hindalco up by 3.59% and Jindal Steel was up by 3.04%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 1.05%, Wipro down by 1.04%, Cipla down by 0.86%, TCS down by 0.47% and Tata Motors down by 0.46% were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian indices were in green; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.32% and Hang Seng gained 0.55%, Jakarta Composite inched up by 0.37%, KLSE Composite added 0.41%, Nikkei 225 surged by 1.59%, Straits Times gained 0.38%, Seoul Composite was up by 0.22% and Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.94%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.65%, Germany’s DAX added 0.42% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.33%.