Benchmarks continue to trade firm in late morning

Indian equity benchmarks are trading steady holding onto their early morning gains trying to further consolidate on the penultimate day of F&O expiry as investors engage in fresh buying, mainly in realty, metal, auto, refinery and power sector stocks amid higher Asian cues. Sentiments remained up-beat on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,465.62 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data from the National Stock Exchange. Sentiments also got some support on hopes of a stable government post elections due by May. A strong government will help accelerate the much-needed reform process and decision making needed to kick-start India's sluggish economy, growing at the slowest pace in a decade.

On the global front, Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green terrain at this point of time buoyed by the optimism about the outlook for the world’s biggest economy .Back home, traders were buying, Realty, Metal and Capital Goods stocks, while selling was seen in FMCG, Healthcare and IT. Buying in rate sensitives too aided the sentiments on report that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will keep the rates unchanged. Credit rating agencies expect the Reserve Bank of India to maintain the status quo on interest rates in its upcoming policy review. Also, the recent gains made by the rupee are a positive for lower rates as this reduces the scope for imported inflation.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1251:849. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 22,100 and 6,600 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22132.64 up by 77.43 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 22172.10 and 22119.47. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.75% and Small cap index up by 0.71%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.10%, Metal up by 2.06%, Capital Goods up by 1.12%, Power up by 1.07% and Auto up by 1.05%, while FMCG down by 0.74%, Healthcare down by 0.49%, IT down by 0.13% and TECK down by 0.03% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 2.65%, SSLT up by 2.14%, Tata Motors up by 2.06%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.99% and Gail India up by 1.89%. On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.32%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.32%, TCS was down by 0.95%, Cipla was down by 0.75%  and Sun Pharma was down by 0.57% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has asserted that India’s exports will fall short of the $325 billion target envisaged in the current fiscal. Anand Sharma added that the government is taking measures and exports during FY14 would be more than the previous fiscal year at $300.4 billion.

During April-February’FY14, value of exports increased by 4.79% to $282.78 billion as against $269.86 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year. However, India’s exports is expected to fall short by about $15 billion from Government’s set target at $325 billion for the current fiscal because exports has to clock a level of around $42 billion in next month with  a growth of around 40% over March 2013 to reach at target, which looks difficult to achieve.

Factors like slow recovery in global demand, declining manufacturing growth and inadequate infrastructure have adversely impacted the country’s exports. Meanwhile, in order to enhance country’s overseas shipments, the FIEO is presently preparing a draft for the new Foreign Trade Policy for 2014-19, which will be submitted to the new government in the next two and a half months time.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,612.75 up by 23.00 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 6,623.25 and 6,607.70. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Jindal Steel up by 2.96%, Hindalco up by 2.69%, Gail up by 2.23%, Maruti up by 2.18% and Tata Motors up by 2.02%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.39%, Lupin down by 1.24%, TCS down by 1.10%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.08% and Cipla down by 0.82% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng gained 225.75 points or 1.04% to 21,958.07, Jakarta Composite strengthened by 19.55 points or 0.42% to 4,722.64, Nikkei 225 soared 28.56 points or 0.20% to 14,455.22, Straits Times rose 41.63 points or 1.30% to 3,144.31, KOSPI Composite surged by 21.75 points or 1.12% to 1,962.94 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 42.82 points or 0.55% to 8,736.74. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined by 3.94 points or 0.19% to 2,063.37 and KLSE Composite was down by 0.44 points or 0.02% to 1,836.73.