Stock markets in India are showing lackadaisical movements in the Friday afternoon session amid lack of investor conviction to pile up fresh positions amid uncertain market conditions. Market participants chose to consolidate their positions around previous closing levels after the brutal over two percent laceration that the frontline indices suffered on Thursday. The key equity gauges continue to move sideways in a narrow range around the psychological 5,250 (Nifty) and 17,250 (Sensex) levels, lacking any significant upside triggers as investors indulged only in stock specific activities. Markets also lacked fervor due to lack of retail participation owing to a Gudi Padwa holiday while Banks, money and foreign exchange markets remained closed on this Maharashtrian New Year day. Meanwhile, sentiments got support after the investment firm Goldman Sachs in its latest Asia-Pacific Quarterly Outlook report upgraded Indian stocks to marketweight from underweight citing reasons that the domestic growth is likely to pick up, while stock valuations remain relatively attractive. Besides, at a time when Indian oil and gas companies incurring hefty losses and subsidies burden has shown little signs of coming down, the government has initiated gas pricing reforms to incentivize production of natural gas. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that oil and gas are national resources and the economic exploitation of these resources should lead to win-win solutions for both the investors as well as the people of India. Leads from the Asian counterparts remained mixed as major markets like the Chinese and Japanese plunged over a percent in the session while others traded with marginal gains. While European futures indicated that the markets there would open on a mildly positive note and halt a four straight session declining streak, its longest down run in four months ahead of announcement of a key US jobs report later in the global day. Back home, on the BSE sectoral space, profit booking was largely evident in the Metal index which plunged over a percent while Consumer Durables counter too traded with similar cuts. On the other hand, investors filed up positions in the defensive FMCG and information technology shares which surged over a percent in the session.
Moreover, the broader markets traded on quiet note around previous closing levels in tandem with their larger peers. The bourses gained on good volumes of over Rs 1 lakh crore while market breadth on BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 1357:1164 while 135 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,257.89 up by 61.42 points or 0.36% after trading as high as 17,356.77 and as low as 17,179.33. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.
The broader indices were trading on a quiet note; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.09% and Small cap added 0.05%.
On the BSE sectoral space, FMCG up by 1.20%, TECk up 1.01%, IT up 0.88%, Realty up 0.57% and Bankex up 0.30% were the major gainers, while Metal down 1.26%, Consumer Durables down 1.10%, Auto down 0.56%, PSU down 0.44% were the only losers in the space.
Bharti Airtel up 1.93%, ITC up 1.82%, HUL up 1.50%, HDFC Bank up 1.46% and TCS up 1.25%, were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Maruti Suzuki down 3.15%, Hindalco down 2.29%, Bajaj Auto down 2.18%, Coal India down 1.96% and Sterlite down 1.93% were the major losers in the index.
Meanwhile, Indian IT industry has contributed substantially to the growth of the US economy and has paid $15 billion as taxes as well as generated employment for 2.8 lakh people, as per Indian IT association NASSCOM. NASSCOM has further stated that Indian investments have actually helped the US in its economic recovery as the Indian IT industry in the States is actually growing despite the slowdown.
These observations are worth pondering over given the outcry over outsourcing in the US. NASSCOM in its report 'India's Tech Industry in the US' has observed that in the past 5 years, the direct workforce employed in the US by the Indian IT sector has almost doubled to 107,000. Combined with the indirect jobs, the figure goes up to 280,000. Also, Indian technology companies have invested more than $5 billion through 128 acquisitions thereby saving and sustaining thousands of jobs in the USA. Growth in acquisitions by the Indian companies in the US increased to 54% in FY2010 from 41% in FY2009.
Leading Indian companies, in the recent years, have increased their campus recruitment efforts and plan to increase the number of offers made upto four times in the next two years.
It is also estimated that industry has invested thousands of hours in community service that have touched half-a-million American lives. The companies remain committed to play role of good corporate citizens in the future, targeting to touch more than 10 times more lives through these sustained efforts, says the report.
The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,236.35, higher by 7.90 points or 0.15% after trading as high as 5,278.45 and as low as 5,220.00. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.
The top gainers on the Nifty were ITC up 1.87%, Bharti Airtel up 1.65%, HUL up 1.62%, Cairn up 1.46%, TCS up 1.30%.
Maruti down 2.96%, Hindalco 2.56%, Bajaj Auto down 2.29%, Sterlite down 1.98%, Coal India down 1.90% were the major losers on the index.
In the Asian space, Jakarta Composite rose 0.13%, KLSE Composite added 0.10%, Straits Times advanced 0.23%, Seoul Composite gained 0.04% and Taiwan Weighted increased 0.21%.
On the other hand, Shanghai Composite plunged 1.18%, Hang Seng sank 1.37% and Nikkei 225 plummeted 1.14%.
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