Markets trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks, after witnessing blood bath in previous session, have made a decent start and are trading in fine fettle tracking firm global cues. Further, better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and HCL Tech’s Q3 stellar performance boosted sentiment. TCS reported a 48.2% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 5,357.6 crore for the quarter ended March 31, helped by growth in Europe and APAC and investments in digital technologies, while HCL Technologies posted a jump of 69.67% in its net profit at Rs 1412.54 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 as compared to Rs 832.96 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Global cues too remained supportive with the US markets extending their gains for the third straight day ended sharply higher in last session, on the back of positive remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen who insisted again that the Fed will remain highly accommodative until employment and inflation reach healthier levels. Asian markets too were trading mostly in the green at this point of time taking cues from the US markets. Back home, the rupee firmed up against the US dollar and was up at Rs 60.28 compared to the previous close of Rs 60.39. On the sectoral front, auto, software and consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while capital goods, banking and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading in line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,036 shares on the gaining side against 497 shares on the losing side while 78 shares remain unchanged. The BSE Sensex opened at 22327.76; about 50 points higher compared to its previous closing of 22277.23, and touched a high and a low of 22364.90 and 22312.19 respectively. The index is currently trading at 22330.37, up by 53.14 points or 0.24%. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index. The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 64.31% stocks advancing against 30.85% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.48% and Small cap gained 0.82%.  The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.10%, IT up by 1.09%, Consumer Durables up by 0.89%, Teck up by 0.87% and Realty up by 0.77%, while Capital Goods down by 0.38%, FMCG down by 0.22%, Bankex down by 0.21%, PSU down by 0.07% and Power down by 0.05% were the top losers on the sectoral index. The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.02%, Wipro up by 1.85%, Hindalco up by 1.33%, Infosys up by 1% and ICICI Bank up by 0.96%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank was down by 2.14%, BHEL was down by 1.25%, L&T was down by 0.66%, ONGC was down by 0.58% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.42% were the top losers on the Sensex. Meanwhile, taking into account the rising concerns of India’s subdued exports performance, the new foreign trade policy (FTP) to be introduced this year, is expected to focus on issues such as services sector shipments, standards and branding of products. The five-year FTP (2009-14) ended on March 31 and the new government formed after the general election will introduce new FTP for the period 2014-19. FTP governs all exports and imports related activities and mainly aims at enhancing the country's exports and use trade expansion as an effective instrument of economic growth and employment generation.  It has become imperative to boost country’s exports which have been hovering near $300 billion over the last three fiscal years. The new FTP is likely to promote exports of specific products in specific geographies and would also abolish conventional method of exports through focusing more on areas like high-tech items, branding of products in the global market and new strategy for marketing. The policy may also review the current schemes which are not in compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) norms. According to global exports norms, India cannot provide export subsidies to a sector if outbound shipments from those particular segment crosses 3.5 percent share in the global market. Therefore, India would not be able to provide export subsidies to textile sector as the sector is reported to have crossed the 3.5 percent share in the global market. India's share in global trade stands at about 2 percent. In FY14, India's exports grew marginally by 3.96 percent to $312.35 billion, which was below the set export target at $325 billion. During April-February period, services exports, which contribute about 60 per cent to the country's GDP were worth $152.69 billion. The CNX Nifty opened at 6,695.45; about 20 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,675.30, and has touched a high and a low of 6,701.80 and 6,686.85 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,696.85, up by 21.55 points or 0.32%. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.04%, Wipro up by 1.93%, Hindalco up by 1.37%, HCL Tech up by 1.31% and Infosys up by 1.23%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.08%, BHEL down by 1.14%, Power Grid down by 0.70%, L&T down by 0.63% and Bank of Baroda down by 0.59% were the top losers on the index. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.16 points or 0.01% to 2,105.28, Hang Seng up by 53.86 points or 0.24% to 22,749.87, Taiwan Weighted was up by 23.79 points or 0.27% to 8,947.61 and Jakarta Composite was up by 15.50 points or 0.32% to 4,888.51. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 tumbled 24.34 points or 0.17% to 14,393.34, Straits Times shed by 3.23 points or 0.10% to 3,249.97 and KOSPI Composite dropped by 5.02 points or 0.25% to 1,987.19.