FIRM OPENING

The Indian equity markets have made a firm start led by some bottom fishing after two sessions' of downfall. However, global cues remained choppy as the US markets made a mixed closing on Thursday as the news from the economy front too remained mixed while, Asian counters exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time. Back home, sustained buying in mostly all the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE's -- Sensex -- and NSE's -- Nifty -- to trade comfortably over their crucial 17,200 and 5,200 mark respectively. On the sectoral front, banking, realty and oil and gas remained the top gainers while there was no loser on the index. The sentiments got a boost after the Reserve Bank said it will buy up to Rs 10,000 crore of bonds through open market operations today. Meanwhile, the sharp jump in core sector also added to optimism. The eight core infrastructure industries that account for nearly 40% in the IIP grew at 6.8% in February against 0.5% last month. The broader indices were going neck to neck with benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,079 shares on the gaining side against 396 shares on the losing side while 42 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,117.41; about 59 points higher compared to its previous closing of 17,058.61, and has touched a high and a low of 17,263.72 and 17,105.22 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,248.35, up by 189.74 points or 1.11%. All the 30 stocks were on the advancing side on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 70.66% stocks advancing against 25.93% declines. The broader indices were trading in line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 1.15% and 0.92% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.88%, Bankex up by 1.64%, CD up by 1.62%, Metal up by 1.48% and Power up by 1.33%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.60%, Tata Power up by 2.49%, Hindalco up by 2.40%, TCS up by 1.90% and DLF up by 1.84%. While, there was no loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to improve their ability to manage stressed assets, but said that there was nothing alarming about an unexpected rise in the non-performing assets levels in this financial year. Banks, especially the public sector banks have been reporting higher NPAs since the second quarter of the fiscal because of the continued slowdown in economic activities and the rising domestic rate of interests.

SBI, the country's largest lender, has reported record gross NPAs in Q3 at Rs 40,080 crore and has seen a 87.5% spike in its provisioning. Private lenders however are better off. What is worrying about the NPAs is not the increase in their numbers but the 300% spike in corporate debt recast (CDR). Under CDR, creditors, among others, make concessions by reducing the interest rate, rescheduling repayments, converting debt into equity/ preference shares, and waiving principal/ interest (to a limited extent) to turnaround the companies.

The sectors which are seeking CDR are the textiles industry, aviation industry and DISCOMS. Textile companies are seeking CDRs for Rs 1 trillion worth of debts. The RBI has approved Rs 18,000 crore for Air India, while Kingfisher's Rs 7,000 crore was already recast in 2010. The debt in DISCOMS is already touching Rs 80,000 crore while many have recently gone for CDRs.

In total, CDRs have already touched a whopping Rs 76,251 crore, three times more than in the previous year's Rs 25,054 crore. This makes the overall CDR asset in the system to over Rs 1.9 trillion. The increase in CDRs clearly points out to the distress of India Inc. Apart from economic downturn and high interest rates, use of working capital funds for funding capital expenditure, diversion of funds and adverse currency movements are some of the other reasons responsible for the sharp increase in CDR cases.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,206.60; about 28 points higher compared to its previous closing of 5,178.85, and has touched a high and a low of 5,244.05 and 5,203.65 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,239.25, higher by 60.40 points or 1.17%. There were 48 stocks advancing against just 2 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 3.19%, JP Associates up by 2.73%, ICICI Bank up by 2.68%, Hindalco up by 2.40% and IDFC up by 2.33%.

On the flip side, ACC down by 0.39% and Cairn down by 0.22%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite was up 7.78 points or 0.35% to 2,259.94, Jakarta Composite was up 1.50 points or 0.04% to 4,106.67, KLSE Composite was up 6.64 points or 0.42% to 1,592.08 and Straits Times was up 11.02 points or 0.37% to 3,005.11.

On the flip side, Hang Seng was down 121.95 points or 0.59% to 20,487.44, Nikkei 225 was down 33.05 points or 0.33% to 10,081.74, Seoul Composite was down 1.04 points or 0.05% to 2,013.37 and Taiwan Weighted was down 3.55 points or 0.05% to 7,869.11.