Markets pare early gains; hold their neck in green

Indian equity markets have pared some of their early gains on prevailing caution ahead of the election outcome on Friday. Nevertheless, the momentum still remains on positive side as select buyers continue to add risky equities in their portfolio amidst hopes of stable government, which would help revive the sluggish growth of the economy. Holding their neck in green, while Sensex was trading below the psychological 23, 900 level, Nifty was holding the fort above crucial 7100 bastion. Markets sentiment remained strong on continued capital inflows and widespread buying by retail investors ahead of the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections. Besides, encouraging quarterly earnings by some more companies, including Tata Steel, also triggered buying activity.  On the BSE sectoral front, maximum positions were built in Consumer Durables, followed by Power and Realty stocks, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Teck and IT counters. In scrip specific development, shares of Bajaj Finserv fall as much as 2% after its consolidated net profit dropped more than expected in the January-March quarter. While, shares of Tech Mahindra was trading firm as the company reported a strong growth in revenues, driven by its core telecom business. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed with shares in Japan witnessing profit taking and gains in the yen weighing on investor sentiment. Moreover, US markets fell on Wednesday as investors resumed selling in small-cap and Internet shares. Back home, Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Holdings, Bank of India, EID Parry, Karnataka Bank and Essar Ports will be in focus on account of March quarter earnings announcement. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2164 stocks traded, 900 stocks advanced, while 1147 stocks declined on the BSE. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23859.31 up by 44.19 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 23971.78 and 23803.71. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.08%, while Small cap index down by 0.25%. The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.74%, Power up by 0.77%, Realty up by 0.65%, Healthcare up by 0.47% and Oil & Gas up by 0.21%. While, Metal down by 0.75%, Teck down by 0.26%, IT down by 0.23%, PSU down by 0.16% and Capital Goods down by 0.12% were the losing indices on BSE.    The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.43%, Gail India up by 2.18%, Sun Pharma up by 2.02%, Tata Power up by 1.95% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.15%. On the flip side, Coal India was down by 1.75%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.80%, ONGC was down by 0.77%, TCS was down by 0.68% and Hindalco down by 0.64% were the top losers on the Sensex. Meanwhile, with an aim to enhance the domestic coal production, the government has set up a nine-member panel, which will identify more blocks in addition to already selected 54 mines, for sale through competitive bidding. The panel’s members have been drawn from the Coal Ministry, Coal India and its subsidiaries and office of the Coal Controller. The panel will select coal blocks from areas explored after 2008. The panel will also examine the present status of Coal India (CIL) in the development of already allotted blocks to it and find out scope of re-allocation of blocks to CIL. Besides, the panel will also examine the status of CBM (coal-bed methane) blocks, areas relinquished by operators and also identify de-allocated blocks having no legal dispute. The Government has already offered three coal blocks for auction in the region of Jharkhand and West Bengal for the captive use for steel, cement and sponge iron companies.Presently, Coal India (CIL) is the only producer of domestic coal accounting for around 80 percent of the domestic production. CIL is also struggling to meet domestic coal requirements and its production fell 4.21 percent short of its production target at 462.53 million tonnes in FY14 amid some mining concerns. India, despite being world's fifth largest in terms of reserves and the third-largest producer of coal, has failed to keep pace with increasing domestic demand. Indian domestic coal demand is around 35 percent higher than domestic supply, resulting into a high deficit of which a huge part is being met by costly imports from Indonesia, South Africa and Australia. Acute coal shortages in the country have become primary reason for power deficit as coal-fired plants account for 68% of India's installed electricity capacity. Meanwhile, newly constituted panel would expedite the coal auction process and soon invite bids from private players to start coal mining in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode in the country, which will also end the monopoly of public sector unit Coal India The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,117.85 up by 9.10 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 7,152.55 and 7,106.00. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declining on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were NTPC up by 2.55%, Tata Power up by 2.01%, Sun Pharma up by 1.90%, Gail up by 1.86% and DLF up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Asian Paint down by 3.58%, Bank Baroda down by 2.59%, NMDC down by 2.10%, Coal India down by 1.92% and BPCL down by 1.31% were the top losers on the index. Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite declined by 0.87%, KLSE Composite slipped by 0.05%, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 1.01% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.13%. On the flip side, Hang Seng added 0.26%, Seoul Composite up by 0.12%, Jakarta Composite soared 1.43% and Straits Times was up by 0.16%.