MODERATE GAINS

Indian equity markets pared some early gains and currently trading marginally up from the previous day's closing point. After a firm opening and subsequent fall to lower levels, benchmarks moved higher once again amid some stock specific buying but again erased some gains. Hopes of further monetary easing by the US Federal Reserve, and up move in Asian markets were adding sentiment on the Indian bourses. In currency markets, Indian rupee opened stronger as dollar weakened against other overseas currencies. On sectoral front health care, power and auto stocks were trading with gains, while realty, TECk and IT stocks were trading in red. On the global front, most Asian markets were trading up in early trade. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,477 shares on the gaining side against 799 shares on the losing side while 139 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,889.20, up by 29.40 points or 0.17%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,943.55 and 16,864.64 respectively. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The broader indices gained additional traction; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading higher by 0.65% and 0.74% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Health Care (HC) up by 1.12%, CG up by 1.07%, Power up by 0.98%, Auto up by 0.96% and CD up by 0.95%. While Realty down by 0.38%, TECk down 0.32%, IT down 0.26% and FMCG down by 0.13% remained the few losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddy up by 3.44%, Tata Motors up by 2.58%, Jindal Steel up by 2.21%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.83% and ONGC up by 1.74%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.66%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.22%, ITC down by 0.76%, HDFC Bank down by 0.75% and TCS down by 0.75% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, buoyed by firm demand from automobile, consumer durables and manufacturing space, Indian Steel imports surged by 68.47 percent to 1.528 million tonnes in April-May period of FY'13 as compared to 0.907 million tonnes in the same period last fiscal. The total imports in 2011 stood at 8.2 million tonnes.

Out of the total imports during first two month this fiscal, 1.329 million tonnes were of flat variety and the remaining 0.199 are non-flat products. Flat steels are used in consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods, while non-flat varieties find application in construction space.

Meanwhile, India's production for sale of total finished steel registered a mere growth of 4.4 percent during the same period. The present domestic demand-supply mismatch reverses this year-on-year situation and leads to a heightened year-on-year rate of growth in imports.

The demand from sectors like motor vehicles, transport equipment, basic goods, consumer durables and manufacturing remained higher despite slowdown in domestic conditions in some of the end-use markets. Moreover, the price fluctuation is another critical factor influencing trends in imports with the relative strength in domestic prices vis-a-vis import prices, especially in an environment of fluctuating domestic currency.

China was the lead contributor comprising 30 percent of the total imports during April-May followed by South Korea (19 percent) and Japan (14 percent). Ukraine and Belgium are the other two prominent contributors.

The S&P CNX Nifty, after touching a high and low of 5,134.65 and 5,106.10 respectively, is currently trading at 5,117.30, higher by 13.45 points or 0.26%. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr Reddy up by 2.95%, Tata Motors up by 2.73%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.48%, Jindal Steel up 2.48% and HCL Technologies up by 2.24%.

On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 2.57%, DLF down by 1.72%, Coal India down by 1.69%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.30% and ITC down by 1.00%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in the green; Hang Seng soared 0.67%, Jakarta Composite added 0.88%, KLSE Composite added 0.16%, Nikkei 225 surged 1.21%, Straits Times shot up by 0.31%, KOSPI Composite expanded by 0.50% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.85%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite down by 0.34% was the sole loser on the index.