Markets trade in green in afternoon session

Indian bourses have stabilized and are once again moving higher in afternoon session on the back of fresh buying by funds and retail investors amid weak Asian cues. Gains in rate sensitive stocks such as metal, realty and banks has provided support to the major indices. However, the sharp selling witnessed in defensive sector stocks has restrained the markets’ gains. Sentiments remained optimistic amid expectations that the new government will usher in strong pro-reform policies and kick-start the investment cycle. Metal index was the top gainer on BSE up by around 4.86% on hopes that the new government's likely clearance for stalled infrastructure projects would lead to a pick-up in demand going forward. Buying was broad based and shares of both the S&P BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rallied 2-3%. However, IT, teck and Pharma were under pressure amid concerns the rupee will continue to appreciate in near future which in turn will impact the margins of domestic IT and pharma players. Stock specific front, shares of SpiceJet were down 1.3% at around Rs 14.75 after the low-cost airline's net loss widened to Rs 321 crore in Q4 FY13 from Rs 186 crore in the corresponding period last year due to expensive jet fuel, a falling rupee and slow passenger growth. On global front, major Asian equity indices were trading in red with Hang Seng down by 0.50% and Straits Times down by 0.08%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,200 and 24,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2,420 stocks traded, 1,595 stocks advanced, while 730 stocks declined on the BSE. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24,200.20 up by 78.46 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 24,427.10 and 24,107.99. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 2.20%, while Small cap index up by 3.25%. The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 4.86%, Power up by 4.86%, Capital Goods up by 4.46%, Realty up by 4.20%, Oil and Gas up by 3.27% and Bankex up by 2.30%. On the flip side, IT down by 4.98%, Healthcare down by 3.94%, Teck down by 3.56% and FMCG down by 3.22% were the losing indices on BSE.    The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 9.13%, Tata Power up by 6.68%, SSLT up by 6.30%, Hindalco Inds up by 5.49% and ONGC up by 5.13%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 5.83%, TCS down by 5.49%, Infosys down by 5.00%, Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 4.99% and Wipro down by 4.75%. Meanwhile, Coal Ministry has extended the deadline to June 25 for companies submitting applications to participate in the competitive bidding for three mines in the region of Jharkhand and West Bengal. These three mines have an estimated 500 million tonnes of reserves, for captive use of steel, cement and sponge iron firms. Till now, the government has received 36 applications from various companies include Tata Steel and Jindal Steel in response to the tender for allotment of mines. With an aim to enhance the domestic coal production, the government has recently set up a nine-member panel, which will identify more blocks in addition to already selected 54 mines, for sale through competitive bidding.  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.  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. Meanwhile, in order to meet India’s growing coal demand, the government has planned to allot coal mines directly to private players under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, which would also end the monopoly of public sector unit Coal India. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,228.70 up by 25.70 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 7,290.35 and 7,193.55. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declining on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were Coal India up by 9.35%, PNB up by 8.07%, SSLT up by 6.68%, Tata Power up by 6.22% and BPCL up by 5.69%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 6.90%, Sun Pharma down by 5.86%, TCS down by 5.72%, Infosys down by 4.98% and Wipro down by 4.79% were the major losers on the index. Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng down by 0.50% to 22,598.59, Straits Times down by 0.08% to 3,260.43, Shanghai Composite down by 1.40% to 1,997.15 and Nikkei 225 down by 0.51% to 14,024.89. While, Jakarta Index up by 0.05% to 5,033.99 and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.13% to 8,899.45