Benchmarks remain buoyant; Nifty trades past 6450 level

Going from strength to strength, Indian equity markets adding more ground were trading with gains of close to a percent past the crucial 21, 700 (Sensex) and 6450 (Nifty) levels respectively. Strong inflows from foreign institutional investors in the previous trading session mainly lifted Indian equity markets to day’s high level and afloat thereon.  Overseas investors extended their buying streak to a 15th straight day and bought Indian shares worth Rs 1273 crore on Thursday, their biggest daily purchase since December 19,2013.

On the global front, Asian stocks rose on Friday, buoyed by Wall Street's gains the previous day, but investors remained cautious ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report later in the session. U.S. nonfarm payrolls are forecast to have increased by around 149,000 in February, up from the weather-depressed gains of 113,000 in January and 75,000 in December.

Closer home, the up-move of the bourses was mainly led by blue chip stocks, viz ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI and HDFC twins. While, the broader indices struggled to gain traction, with Midcap index hardly managing to keep its head above water. Meanwhile, major sectoral indices were gainers on BSE, barring TECK, Information Technology and defensive-Healthcare and Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector. Nevertheless, top gainers were stocks from Capital Goods , Bankex and  Realty counters. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1209:923; while 100 shares remained unchanged. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2216 stocks traded, 1203 stocks advanced, while 917 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21736.67, up by 222.80 points or 1.04% after trading in a range of 21768.85 and 21539.44. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were managing to keep their head above water; with BSE Mid cap index inching higher by 0.07% and Small cap index gaining 0.12%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 4.41%, Bankex up by 4.13%, Realty up by 2.04%, Oil & Gas up by 1.98% and PSU up by 1.20%, while IT down by 2.22%, Healthcare down by 1.85%, Teck down by 1.42% and FMCG down by 0.21% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 5.95%, ICICI Bank up by 5.1592%, Axis Bank up by 4.80%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.62% and SBI was up by 4.32%. On the flip side, Dr Reddys Lab down by 3.64%, Wipro down by 2.66%, TCS down by 2.48%, Infosys down by 2.24% and Cipla down by 1.17% were the major losers on Sensex.

Meanwhile, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the apex representative body of sugar industry, has scaled down the estimates for sugar production for the current 2013-14 season by close to five per cent to 23.8 million tonnes (MT), which is just about enough to meet the country’s consumption of the sweetener. In September, ISMA had projected the output at 25 MT for the 2013-14 season to September. Meanwhile, India’s sugar consumption, which is the highest in the world, is estimated to be at 23.5 MT in the year 2013-14.

In its latest projections, based on the January-end satellite imagery, ISMA blamed the decline in output to the loss of sugarcane crop in eastern Uttar Pradesh on account of rainfall in recent months and a delay in crushing by the UP millers due to tiff over cane prices. Hence, it lowered sugar output projection for Uttar Pradesh by 1.1 MT to 6.6 MT against the earlier estimate of 7.7 MT.

Besides, the estimates for sugar production in Tamil Nadu were also lowered by 100,000 tonnes on account of lower yield and recovery percentage of sugar in the state. Major sugar producing states Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh are expected to produce 7.8 MT, 3.5 MT, 1.5 MT, 1.17 MT and 950,000 tonnes, respectively. While, the output in Maharashtra is expected to be flat at 7.8 MT, it is expected to be marginally higher at 3.5 MT in Karnataka.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,468.70, up by 67.55 points or 1.06% after trading in a range of 6,477.55 and 6,413.55. There were 31 stocks advancing against 18 declining and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up by 8.49%, L&T up by 5.95%, ICICI Bank up by 5.15%, Axis Bank up by 4.71% and Bharti Airtel was up by 4.62%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 3.52%, Wipro down by 2.76%, TCS  down by 2.50%, Infosys down by 2.14% and Lupin was down by 1.46% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.26%, Jakarta Composite gained by 0.19%, Nikkei 225 spurted by 0.84%, Hang Seng up by 0.06% and Straits Times soared 0.16%.On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.10%, KOSPI Composite down by 0.01% and KLSE Composite was down by 0.29%.