Markets trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks, after witnessing four consecutive sessions of drubbing, have made a decent start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Friday, on the back of strength in the financial space. However, gains remained capped to certain extent on account of weak core sector data. The index of eight core industries slowed to 2.5 per cent in March from 7 percent recorded in the same month a year ago, as output of crude oil, natural gas and fertiliser declined. Auto companies too have came up with disappointing sales data for the month of April and were weighing on the sentiments of the marketmen. On the global front, the US markets made mostly negative closing in last session and traders opted to remain on sidelines ahead of the release of April’s jobs report on Friday, overlooking a positive batch of economic indicators. Asian markets too were trading mostly in the red at this point of time, as investors awaiting the US payrolls report and while China’s markets are closed, others remained subdued. Back home, on the sectoral front, banking, healthcare and realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while capital goods and auto remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction in early deals, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,065 shares on the gaining side against 449 shares on the losing side while 72 shares remain unchanged. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1032:429. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading near their psychological 22,500 and 6,700 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22500.40, up by 82.60 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 22575.62 and 22488.62.There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.79% and Small cap index up by 1.04%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 0.91%, PSU up by 0.81%, Health Care up by 0.79%, Consumer Durables up by 0.75% and Realty up by 0.65%, while Capital Goods down by 0.05% and Auto down by 0.04% were the losers on the sectoral index. The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.28%, ICICI Bank up by 1.22%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.11%, HDFC up by 1.02% and Tata Power up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.62%,  Maruti Suzuki was down by 0.99%, Gail India  was down by 0.92%, Hindalco Inds was down by 0.85% and L&T was down by 0.66% were the top losers on the Sensex. Meanwhile, as monsoon rainfall is likely to be weak this year, the agriculture ministry is making unprecedented preparations to make sure that food production will not badly hit by the weather. At Present, chief officials of the Agriculture Ministry are on state tours and are consulting with farmers on drought preparedness. However, in the previous year, agriculture ministry did not take any action even after the month of June went without rain. The Ministry is working hard to counter impact of weak monsoon rains amid concerns that inflation may remain sticky in the current financial year as a possible El Nino effect on the monsoon is likely to push up food prices and geopolitical uncertainties are also expected to pump up global commodity rates. The Agriculture Ministry has also planned to suggest farmers to use of seeds that are less water intensive as well as contingency plans. Agriculture Commissioner JS Sandhu has asserted that Ministry’s plan include recommending short-duration crops in some regions and planting of Basmati, which needs lesser water than regular grades of rice. Further, he added that states will be recommended to coordinate with different departments like irrigation and power to ensure supply of canal water and electricity. Over the past four months, retail prices of pulses and rice have already risen 10% to 27% from a year earlier due to unseasonal rain and hailstorms.  On commodity wise, prices of urad dal has increased from Rs 41,000 per tonne to Rs 45,000 per tonne in last four months, while prices of yellow peas have gone up to Rs 30,000 per tonne from Rs 26,500 per tonne. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,725.55 up by 29.15 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 6,737.65 and 6,709.95. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were NMDC up by 3.06%, Asian Paint up by 2.28%, BPCL up by 1.91%, PNB up by 1.45% and ICICI Bank up by 1.37%. On the flip side, M&M down by 1.75%, Cairn down by 1.58%, Jindal Steel down by 1.33%, Maruti down by 1.14% and GAIL down by 1.09% were the top losers on the index. Asian equity indices were traded in mixed; Shanghai Composite increased by 0.30%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.29%, Hang Seng was up by 0.53% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.82%.On the flip side, KLSE Composite decreased 0.10%, Nikkei 225 was down by 0.38%, Straits Times was down by 0.37% and KOSPI slipped by 0.21%.