Benchmarks consolidate near all time highs

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade firm in the afternoon session, hovering near their fresh all-time high level amid a rally in banking, PSUs and oil & gas sector stocks, driven by sustained capital inflows. Good global cues coupled with firm economic data strengthened the markets to extend further gains. Though the major indices were following a tight range but there is no sense of any profit booking since morning. Capital inflows by foreign funds at the domestic bourses helped the key indices to touch new highs. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 14.79 crore in the prevoious session. Sentiments also remained up beat on report that retail inflation for farm workers and rural labourers eased to 8.14 percent and 8.27 percent respectively in February from 9.08 percent and 9.21 percent in January. Sectorally, banking sector index gained the most, jumping around 2.54 per cent, followed by oil and gas and Realty indices both up by over 1 percent. However, there was some weakness in the defensive sectors stocks like IT and healthcare. 

ONGC stock was trading higher by nearly 2% at Rs 313 ahead of board meeting today to consider interim dividend for the financial year 2013-14. Punjab National Bank was almost 2% higher to around Rs 450 after the state-owned bank said it may raise capital through rights issue to enhance its capital base. Techno Electric and Engineering Company has soared 16% to around Rs 140 after promoter increased their stake in the company by over 4% to 59.28% via indirect acquisition.

On global front, Asian equity indices were trading in green with Nikkei 225 up by 1.72% and Hang Seng up by 1.57%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,550 and 22,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,436 stocks traded, 1,204 stocks advanced, while 1,088 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22,008.65 up by 253.33 points or 1.16% after trading in a range of 22,046.58 and 21,827.50. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.20%, while Small cap index up by 0.43%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.54%, Oil and Gas up by 1.67%, Realty up by 1.06%, Power up by 0.74% and FMCG up by 0.51%. While, Healthcare down by 0.24% and IT down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.76%, Coal India up by 2.89%, Gail India up by 2.31%, HDFC Bank up by 2.19% and RIL up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Hindalco Inds down by 1.44%, Tata Steel down by 0.99%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 0.75%, NTPC down by 0.35% and Sun Pharma down by 0.34%.

Meanwhile, amid concerns over declining Indian exports, Union Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher has asserted that domestic exporters must explore new territories in countries like Africa and China to diversify exports business instead of keeping focus in traditional markets like European Union and the USA.

Rajeev Kher further stated that African countries as well as China have huge market potential. Besides, new exports opportunities are also coming up from the Southeast Asian countries. Commerce Secretary also expressed the need for Indian exporters to enhance overseas shipments to countries like Peru, Colombia, Chile, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which have still been ignored by them.  Rajeev Kher encouraged domestic exports to enhance shipments to China as India's trade deficit with China stood at around $35 billion per annum which has become a cause of concern.

India’s overseas shipments fell by 3.67% to $25.69 billion in February from $26.69 billion recorded in the corresponding month of previous year. Export of engineering and pharmaceuticals products was declined by 2.76% and 1.62% to $5.02 billion and $1.17 billion, respectively, in February.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,570.00 up by 75.10 points or 1.16% after trading in a range of 6,580.90 and 6,510.50. There were only 40 stocks advancing against 10 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.82%, Indusind Bank up by 3.11%, JP Associate up by 3.10%, Coal India up by 2.86% and GAIL up by 2.60%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.36%, Tata Steel down by 1.13%, HCL Tech down by 0.99%, NTPC down by 0.57% and Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 0.55% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng up by 1.57% to 21,773.26, Shanghai Composite up by 0.97% to 2,068.85, Straits Times was up by 1.26% to 3,112.13, Jakarta Composite up by 0.23% to 4,711.11, Nikkei 225 up by 1.72% to 14,470.80 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.33% to 8,605.38.