MARKETS GETTING STRONGER

Strength continues in the Indian equity markets on course to log its seventh consecutive weekly rise, following positive close on Wall Street overnight on the back of some upbeat US economic data and slightly easing worries about the financial crisis in euro-zone on hopes of a second bailout package for Greece. The main 30-share BSE index was up 1.1% while, Nifty came down below the 5,600 mark. On sectoral front all were trading in green except Auto, which was trading marginally lower. Meanwhile, heavy inflow from foreign institutional investors since the beginning of this calendar year also supported the local shares. On the global front, Asian shares were also trading in green. Back home, the market breadth favoring the positive trend; there were 1,680 shares on the gaining side against 917 shares on the losing side while 120 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,372.85, up by 218.86 points or 1.21%. The index has touched a high and a low of 18,423.06 and 18,302.97 respectively. There were 20 stocks advancing against just 10 declining ones on the index.

The broader indices are continued outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 1.10% and 1.15% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 4.94%, Power up by 4.78%, CG up by 3.90%, Realty up by 2.43% and Metal up by 2.30%. While, Auto down by 0.13% was the only loser on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 10.43%, Sterlite Industries up by 4.96%, Tata Power up by 4.46%, DLF up by 3.61% and NTPC up by 3.46%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.00%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.19%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.10%, Tata Motors down by 0.80% and Gail India down by 0.60% were the losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the central government is planning to make it mandatory for multi brand retailers to procure 30% of their supplies from micro and small enterprises (MSEs), Union Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister, Virbhadra Singh said. Also the Public Procurement Policy, which is expected to be notified by the government in March, will make it mandatory for all government departments and PSUs to procure 20% of their supplies from MSEs.

Expanding further on the government's public procurement policy, Singh stated that the Policy, which had been approved by the Cabinet on November 1, 2011, would be notified on March 6, 2012 after the assembly elections.  By adding further he said, the government will notify the Policy after state assembly poll results. The policy would be voluntary in nature for three years and made mandatory after that.

Apart from making 20% reservation for MSEs mandatory in all procurement by government departments, 4% procurement would be earmarked for SCs and STs. 'PSUs are expected to buy goods worth Rs 35,000 crore from the MSEs, of which a business of Rs 7,000 crore would go to the SCs/STs,' the minister stated.

Further, Singh expressed his concerns about the lack of professional management in terms of core understanding of problem analysis, risk management, integrated sourcing in most of the small industries in MSME sector. He said that this lack of knowledge was keeping the MSME sector from competing in the international markets.

Hence the government was making efforts by establishing professional institutes like the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) School of Business Management, which he hoped would go a long way in meeting the ever increasing demand for skilled labour in the country and help create a vibrant entrepreneurial eco-system for start-ups and early stage enterprises.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,594.25, higher by 72.30 points or 1.31%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,606.70 and 5,567.20 respectively. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 10.35%, RPower up by 7.64%, Sesa Goa up by 5.92%, Sterlite Industries up by 5.67% and IDFC up by 5.47%.

On the flip side, BPCL down by 2.38%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.19%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.19%, Cairn down by 1.15% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.09%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices barring Shanghai Composite were trading in the green; Hang Seng up by 0.84%, Jakarta gained 0.50%, KLSE Composite added 0.45%, Nikkei 225 surged 1.73%, Straits Times rose 0.40%, Seoul Composite spurted 1.36% and Taiwan Weighted accumulated 0.31%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite down by 0.10 points was the lone loser amongst the Asian pack.