DOWNTREND HALTED

Indian equity indices have finally managed to break the downward trend that prevailed since the start of the week and finish the session in the green territory though with marginal gains. The benchmarks have traded above the neutral line for most part of the session, yet there were little signs of a bounce back as cautious investors remained hesitant to open long positions despite a slew of strong earnings announcements including that of heavyweight L&T which reported higher than expected fourth quarter results and strong earnings guidance. Investors even overlooked the moderation in weekly food inflation numbers which eased for the third straight week, as they remained apprehensive amid growing uncertainties over the stability of local markets. Concerns like plough back of foreign funds, further hike in prices of petroleum products along with risks of towering inflation and rise in interest rates capped the upside chances for the frontline indices. Moreover, fertilizer stocks like Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers, Coromandel International, National Fertilizers, Nagarjuna fertilisers and FACT spurted on reports that fertiliser companies may be allowed to hike maximum retail prices of Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) by over Rs 600 per tonne as the fertiliser ministry is planning to move a Cabinet proposal in this regard. The NSE's 50-share broadly followed index, Nifty settled close to the psychological 5,450 support level while the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index Sensex advanced around a quarter percent and ended the day below the psychological 18,150 level. The broader markets failed to keep their heads above the water and closed in the negative terrain, underperforming their larger peers by quite a margin. The midcap index declined 0.70% and the smallcap index fell by 0.54% points. On the BSE sectoral space, the Capital Goods pack saw hefty buying interests as it advanced 2.82% supported by around 6% jump in earnings of the flag bearer of capital goods industry Larsen and Toubro. While some short covering in heavyweight stocks like GAIL and ONGC helped the Oil and Gas pack too soared by 1.16% by the end of trade. While the index heavyweight Reliance Industries too made its presence felt after surging around one and half a percent point by the end of session. On the other hand the high beta Realty counter witnessed another forgettable session languishing at the bottom of the BSE sectoral space as stocks like Unitech, DLF and HDIL have shrunk by 4.20%, 3.35% and 3.45% respectively. While the sustained profit booking in Metal, Power and rate sensitive Bankex pockets weighed on sentiments. On the result front, apart from L&T, stocks like SREI Infra, Ashok Leyland, Laxmi Vilas Bank and Jet Airways got commended by the investors in the session.

On the global front, all Asian equity indices settled on a mixed note today amid mixed global cues. South Korean benchmark remained the top laggard in the space after plummeting by around two percentage points on the back of sustained selling witnessed for a sixth session by foreign investors. The European counterparts got off to a sanguine start and have carried forward the momentum as France's CAC 40 surged 1.26%, Germany's DAX jumped 1.40% and London's FTSE 100 soared 1%. On the other hand, the screen trading for US index futures too indicated that the Dow could open on a positive note.

Earlier on Dalal Street, the benchmark got off to an optimistic start in line with the Asian peers which bounced back, as investors in the region largely remained influenced by Wall Street which staged a splendid recovery after three days of dilly-dallying on the back of the bounce back in commodity prices. The day largely remained characterized by choppiness as the frontline indices gyrated in an extremely narrow range through the session. The benchmarks appeared exhausted and showed only sideways kind of movement despite unexpectedly better than expected earnings announcement by L&T, Ashok Leyland etc. Just when it looked like the indices will gather steam and rise higher in the dying hours of second half, investors booked profits and the benchmarks slipped into the red for a brief period. However the only respite for the markets was that the indices snapped the three session downtrend, with marginal gains, below the psychological 5,450 and 18,150 levels. Volumes were over Rs 1 lakh crore while the turnover for NSE F&O segment remained lower compared to Wednesday at over 0.90 lakh crore. Market breadth remained negative as there were 1072 shares on the gaining side against 1683 shares on the losing side while 154 shares remained unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex advanced 55.20 points or 0.31% to settle at 18,141.40 while the S&P CNX Nifty added 7.50 points or 0.14% to end at 5428.10.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 18,198.45 and 18,057.82, respectively. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices lost 0.70% and 0.54% respectively.

The top gainers of the Sensex were L&T up 5.92%, RIL up 1.45%, ONGC up 1.20%, TCS up 1.14% and M&M up 1.11%.

On the flip side, RCom down 3.43%, DLF down 3.35%, Hindalco Inds down 3.14%, Tata Power down 2.60% and Hero Honda down 2.31% were the major losers on the index.

The top gainers in the BSE sectoral space were Capital Goods (CG) up 2.82%, Oil & Gas up 1.16%, IT up 0.34%, Auto up 0.22% and FMCG up 0.06%. 

On the flip side, Realty down 2.87%, Metal down 0.98%, Power down 0.85%, Healthcare (HC) down 0.61% and Bankex down 0.37% were the major losers in the BSE sectoral space.

Meanwhile, India's exports during 2010-11 from Special Economic Zones (SEZs) registered a sturdy growth of 43% over the previous year to take the tally to Rs 3,15,867 crore against an overall export growth of 32.3% in rupee terms. The SEZ sector which has provided employment to 6,76,608 people in India by the end of the fiscal year, has contributed around 28% to national exports during 2010-11 and attracted a total investment of Rs 2,02,810 crore by March 31.

Jatin R. Mehta, Chairman of the Export Promotion Council for Export-Oriented Units (EOUs) & SEZs (EPCES), opined that the body was pleased by the decent performance of its members even as the international economic situation remained unstable.

However, Jatin Mehta, expressing the members' concerns, emphasized that the new constraints such as the imposition of minimum alternate tax (MAT) and Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) introduced in the 2011-12 Budget have not gone down well with the members. Though the Finance Bill 2011 retained these harsh provisions, the Council remained determined to make best efforts for withdrawal of MAT/DDT.

By the end of the previous fiscal year, as many as 133 SEZs were operational out of which 17 are multi-product SEZs and the remaining include mostly IT/ITeS SEZs, engineering, electronic hardware, textiles, biotechnology, gem and jewellery and other sector specific SEZs.

The S&P CNX Nifty touched a high and a low of 5452.60 and 5411.25, respectively.

The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up 6.77%, IDFC up 1.90%, RIL up 1.82%, ONGC up 1.64% and Siemens up 1.62%.

On the flip side, DLF down 3.84%, Hindalco Inds down 3.33%, RCom down 2.97%, Hero Honda down 2.80% and Tata Power down 2.76% were the major losers on the index.

European markets were trading in the green. France's CAC 40 rose 1.30%, Germany's DAX advanced 1.29% and Britain's FTSE 100 was trading higher by 1%.

Asian equity indices finished the day's trade on a mixed note on Thursday. Shares in Hong Kong closed with a gain of more than half a percent following an upbeat lead from Wall Street. While, Taiwan stocks slipped more than half a percent, with airlines and shipping companies among the top losers as oil rose for a second session on an unexpected drop in crude inventories in the US and Seoul shares gave up earlier gains and ended with a cut of about 2 percent as sustained selling witnessed for a sixth session by foreign investors while, automakers and banks like Hyundai Motor and KB Financial Group too weighed investors sentiments in the region.