Benchmarks continue to trade in green in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks paired some early gains, but continue to trade in green in afternoon session on the back of fresh buying by funds and retail investors amid positive global cues. Selling witnessed in realty, FMCG and IT stock dragged the markets lower, however the major indices were managing to remain in positive territory supported by buying in banking, auto and metal stocks. Global sentiment was buoyed on upbeat comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen that Fed will continue to support the US economy. Further, the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar and continual FII inflows also aided to the optimistic sentiments. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 119.11 crore in the previous session. Banking was top gaining index on BSE up by over 0.80% followed by metal and oil and gas indices both up by over 0.40%. Buying was broad based with both small and mid cap indices trading up over 0.20%. Shasun Pharmaceuticals was locked in upper circuit for second straight day, up 10% after Morgan Stanley Asia bought nearly one per cent stake in the company. Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care (P&G) rallied around 5% to around Rs 3,600 after reporting a strong 55% yoy jump in net profit at Rs 80.76 crore for Q4 FY14. On global front, Asian equity indices were trading in green with Hang Seng up by 0.41% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.87%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,700 and 22,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,301 stocks traded, 1,203 stocks advanced, while 980 stocks declined on the BSE. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22,381.37 up by 57.47 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 22,443.13 and 22,329.39. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.24%, while Small cap index gained 0.66%. The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.81%, Auto up by 0.62%, Metal up by 0.47%, Oil and Gas up by 0.41% and Consumer Durables up by 0.28%. While, Realty down by 0.80%, IT down by 0.10%, FMCG down by 0.10%, Teck down by 0.06% and Capital Goods down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.    The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.83%, ICICI Bank up by 1.34%, Tata Motors up by 1.32%, Wipro up by 1.22% and Tata Steel up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Gail India down by 1.28%, Hero Motocorp down by 0.66%,HDFC down by 0.57%, TCS down by 0.57% and Sun Pharma down by 0.56%. Meanwhile, India is planning to join a group of 41 countries having good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards for drugs in order to help domestic pharmaceutical exporters, to meet frequent inspection and manufacturing requirements being put in place by importing countries. The Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is of the view that problems in terms of meeting different GMP and inspection procedures in different countries will be sorted out if India joins the Pharmaceutical Inspection Cooperation Scheme (PICS). The PICS, which include members like Australia, Canada, European and African countries and the US, is an informal co-operative arrangement between regulatory authorities in the field of GMP of medicinal products.  The Pharmexcil added that in case India does not join the group, domestic exporters should make sure that they follow the practices and regulations specified by the group. Meanwhile, India has invited regulators from 25 countries to participate in the global pharma exhibition to build familiarity between domestic drug regulators and their counterparts in other countries. At present, market size of Indian pharma industry stands at around Rs 1,30,000 crore of which about 50% of revenue comes from industry’s exports. The US is major importer of Indian pharma products followed by Russia, Germany and Austria. The growth in pharmaceuticals exports remained low at 1.2% to $14.84 billion in FY14, as some big Indian pharmaceuticals companies such as Ranbaxy and Wockhardt were facing exports ban in the US due to quality issues raised by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). Further, domestic exporters are also facing restrictions in countries such as Brazil and Russia which recently placed their own plant audits for exporters. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,668.55 up by 16 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 6,688.40 and 6,656.05. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declining on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 1.87%, ICICI Bank up by 1.46%, Tata Motors up by 1.43%, ONGC up by 1.30% and Hindalco up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Gail down by 1.83%, Jindal Steel down by 1.36%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.11%, DLF down by 0.89% and BPCL down by 0.76% were the major losers on the index. Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng up by 0.41% to 21,834.39, Nikkei 225 up by 0.87% to 14,156.72, Straits Times was up by 0.36% to 3,248.38, Shanghai Composite up by 0.63% to 2,022.68 and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.22% to 8,930.90. While, Jakarta Composite down by 0.33% to 4,845.