Markets trade with traction in early deals

Buoyed by firm global cues amid strong foreign fund inflows, Indian equity benchmarks, extending their northward journey to sixth straight day, have made a gap-up opening. The US markets bounced back and ended higher in last session with S&P 500 closing at record high on the back of a relatively upbeat reading on US manufacturing activity in the month of March. Asian markets too were trading higher at this point of time, as investors chose to accentuate the positive in a mixed bag of global economic data, pressuring the safe haven yen to a 10-week trough.

Back home, foreign fund inflows continue on hopes of a turnaround in the economy post elections. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought local stocks worth 233.10 crore on March 28, 2014, as per provisional data from SEBI. Appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. The partially convertible rupee continued its surge against the greenback and was trading at 59.69-a-dollar on Tuesday tracking robust foreign fund inflows. Meanwhile, shares of companies that have applied for a banking licence edged higher in early deals and were trading with traction after the Election Commission allowed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to issue new bank licences.

On the sectoral front, technology, healthcare and software witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while fast moving consumer goods and metal remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1135 shares on the gaining side against 468 shares on the losing side while 74 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 22,550.58; about 104 points higher compared to its previous closing of 22,446.44, and touched a high and a low of 22,592.10 and 22,488.26 respectively. The index is currently trading at 22,489.19, up by 42.75 points or 0.19%. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 67.68% stocks advancing against 27.91% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.61% and Small cap gained 0.70%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Teck up by 0.93%, Healthcare up by 0.80%, IT up by 0.73%, Auto up by 0.62% and Consumer Durables up by 0.42%, while FMCG down by 0.88%, Metal down by 0.21% and Capital Goods down by 0.04% were the top losers on the sectoral index.T

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.88%, ICICI Bank up by 1.60%, NTPC up by 1.23%, Cipla up by 1.14% and  Gail India up by 1.11%. On the flip side, ITC was down by 1.67%, Axis Bank was down by 1.62%, Hindalco was down by 1.56%, SSLT was down by 0.78% and BHEL was down by 0.64% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced that country’s current account deficit (CAD) is likely to be $35 billion in FY14 much lower than about $88 billion recorded in the previous fiscal year.

During the April-December’FY14, CAD stands at $31.1 billion (2.3% of GDP) versus $69.8 billion (5.2% of GDP) reported in the same period of previous fiscal year mainly driven by a sharp decline in the trade deficit as merchandise exports picked up and imports moderated, particularly gold imports. Trade deficit during the period April-February’FY14, declined to $128.09 billion as against $179.93 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year. The significant curtailing of country’s CAD has eased some pressure on the macro-economic front as it is a major macro-economic problem which has created huge volatility in the domestic equity markets and currency.

Finance Minister also added that Indian economy is now more stable position than 20 months ago. The  fundamental of economy are strong and there would not be a case of downgrade by global rating agencies. The government projected India’s GDP growth at 4.9 percent for the current fiscal.  

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,757.60; about 36 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,721.05, and has touched a high and a low of 6,763.50 and 6,729.85 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,730.45, up by 9.40 points or 0.14%. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 2.92%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.91%, ICICI Bank up by 1.52%, NTPC up by 1.27% and Cipla up by 1.25%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.90%, Hindalco down by 1.85%, ITC down by 1.45%, BHEL down by 1.29% and SSLT down by 1.20% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite increased by 8.54 points or 0.42% to 2,056.00, Hang Seng gained 86.89 points or 0.39% to 22,535.43, Jakarta Composite climbed 6.77 points or 0.14% to 4,880.71, KLSE Composite soared 4.77 points or 0.26% to 1,852.53, Nikkei 225 spurted by 237.50 points or 1.61% to 15,029.49, Straits Times added 3.30 points or 0.10% to 3,201.82, KOSPI Composite strengthened by 4.48 points or 0.22% to 1,996.46 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 17.06 points or 0.19% to 8,890.21.