Benchmarks edge higher in late morning

Indian equity benchmarks edged higher after a flat opening as buying emerged at higher levels in select heavyweights ahead of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for January and Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the month of February scheduled to be released later today. However, gains on up-side remained capped as investors remained concerned with India’s merchandise exports falling for the first time in eight months and set to miss its export target for the fiscal with exports moving into the negative zone in February 2014. Further, weak trend in the global markets also dampened the sentiments. Back home, traders were buying, Healthcare, FMCG and Consumer Durables stocks, while selling was seen in Capital Goods, Power and Auto.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1106:891. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 21,900 and 6,500 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21933.19 up by 106.77 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 21965.95 and 21768.14. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.38% and Small cap index gained 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Healthcare up by 1.28%, FMCG up by 1.27%, Consumer Durables up by 1.08%, TECK up by 0.66% and IT up by 0.66%, while Capital Goods down by 0.75%, Power down by 0.46%, Auto down by 0.40% and Oil & Gas down by 0.19% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.96%, ITC up by 1.78%, Wipro up by 1.52%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.39%, ICICI Bank up by 1.39%. On the flip side, BHEL was down by 2.04%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.36%, ONGC was down by 1.18%, L&T was down by 1.15% and SBI was down by 0.96% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, In order to encourage domestic technology in the manufacturing of telecom equipment and devices, the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) has floated a plan to set up a billion-dollar venture capital fund. The NMCC notified that the fund will invite proposals in a transparent manner and select a few consortiums, pre-dominantly comprising Indian-origin scientists and technologists and the total cost of the start-ups, from conception to proof of concept and then manufacturing, will be met through equity infusion. NMCC’s notification is currently under the consideration of the Department of Telecom (DoT).

As per the NMCC’s proposal, venture capital fund will provide 85 percent of the equity without management control and the remaining 15 percent would be provided through the selected entrepreneurs in the form of sweat equity. The promoter of the company will have full control of management. Further, the notification added that if the start-up does not succeed in the venture, the money given will be written off, but in case the venture becomes commercially viable then the proposed fund will maintain an equity holding above 51 per cent to prevent any foreign entity from gaining control over the firm.

The NMCC’s latest move is aimed to make India a global technology manufacturing hub. In spite of being a major consumer of telecom network and device products, India presently imports almost all of its telecom requirements. However, the government has also taken several measures like preferential market access policy in order to boost local manufacturing, but not much investment has come in till now.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,534.60 up by 22.70 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 6,546.15 and 6,487.30. There were 24 stocks advancing against 25 decliners while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.94%, ITC up by 1.89%, Wipro up by 1.63%, ICICI Bank up by 1.53% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.38%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.22%, IDFC down by 2.08%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.76%, Ultra Cement down by 1.57% and Maruti down by 1.44% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 16.86 points or 0.84% to 1,984.29, Hang Seng slipped by 353.33 points or 1.59% to 21,916.28, Jakarta Composite dipped 15.82 points or 0.34% to 4,688.39, KLSE Composite contracted by 9.93 points or 0.54% to 1,818.62, Nikkei 225 tumbled 385.67  points or 2.54% to 14,836.79, Straits Times dropped 18.72 points or 0.60% to 3,110.68, KOSPI Composite decreased by 25.47 points or 1.30% to 1,938.40 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 40.30 points or 0.46% to 8,662.13.