Markets trade marginally higher ahead of Q4 GDP data

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading slightly in the green in early deals on Friday, tracking firm US cues. Though, gains remained capped as investors preferred to remain on sidelines ahead of Q4 GDP data, scheduled to be released later in the day and RBI policy review next week. Meanwhile, supporting RBI’s fight against inflation, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that containing inflation is a priority for the newly formed government. Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley too had vowed to check inflation. On the global front, the S&P 500 index posted its third record closing high in four sessions, as investors shrugged off the first quarterly contraction of the US economy in three years and focused on signs of a strengthening labour market. The Asian counterparts were trading mixed at this point of time, though up-side remained capped as some cautiousness emerged after a report that Japanese industrial production missed forecasts. Back home, public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) viz. BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher on indication that the monthly diesel price hikes of 40-50 paise a litre are likely to continue. On the sectoral front, realty, capital goods and oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while banking, software and auto remained the top losers on the BSE. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,126 shares on the gaining side against 645 shares on the losing side while 58 shares remain unchanged. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24252.38, up by 18.23 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 24353.59 and 24167.94. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index. The broader indices were traded in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.54% and Small cap index up by 0.72%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.47%, Capital Goods up by 1.26%, Oil & Gas up by 1.16%, Metal up by 1.09 and Health Care up by 0.87% while Consumer Durables down by 0.84%, Bankex down by 0.81%, Auto down by 0.39% and IT down by 0.28% were the top losers. The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.74%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.72%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.69%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.66% and Gail India up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by  1.89%, Axis Bank was down by 1.61%, Wipro was down by 1.14% , SBI was down by 1.07%  and HDFC Bank was down by 0.94%  were the losers on the Sensex. Meanwhile, industry chamber Assocham’s has stated that delay in key central sector projects have led to steep cost over-runs during the previous fiscal year. Assocham, in its latest report, has noted that the cost over-runs, which had been worked out at Rs 94,800 crore in about 285 Central projects till March 2013 would easily exceed Rs 1 lakh crore by March 2014. According to Assocham's report, railways sector is estimated to be most affected with maximum escalation in costs which were up nearly three times to Rs 73,500 crore by March 2014 from the original estimates of Rs. 27,900 crore in March 2013. Among other sectors, petroleum, power, and steel have also witnessed steep rise in costs due to delays. The industry body further said that the new government should take immediate measures to monitor and revive investment cycle in these central sector projects, report added. The infrastructure development is a most critical prerequisite to boost the economic growth. To boost infrastructure development in the country, India's Government has proposed an investment of $1 trillion for the sector during the 12th Five Year Plan, with 50 percent of the funds coming from the private sector. At present, Indian infrastructure sector is under pressure and the factors like slow reforms, worse land acquisition procedure and delay in environment and forest clearance have been impeding the business sentiments in the country which in turn adversely impacting investments in the sector. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,240.20 up by 4.55 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 7,272.50 and 7,118.45. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were Jindal Steel up by 2.39%, HUL up by 2.04%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.03%, NTPC up by 1.87% and BPCL up by 1.81%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.17%, Kotak Bank down by 1.66%, AXIS Bank down by 1.59%, SBI down by 1.11% and Wipro down by 1.09% were the top losers on the index. Most of Asian markets were trading in red; Jakarta Composite declined 44.86 points or 0.90% to 4,940.72,  KLSE Composite slipped by 1.90 points or 0.10% to 1,874.72, Nikkei 225 tumbled by 50.58 points or 0.34% to 14,631.14, Straits Times decreased 8.76 points or 0.27% to 3,291.95, Seoul Composite shed by 7.46 points or 0.37% to 2,004.80 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 5.81 point or 0.06% to 9,103.19. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was marginally in green by 0.04 points to 2,040.64 and Hang Seng was up by 52.11 points or 0.23% to 23,062.25.