MARKETS HOLD EARLY GAINS

Indian equities continued to trade in fine fettle on back of strong buying in frontline counters in the late morning session. On the global front, the Asian markets were majorly trading in green with many of the indices trading higher by over half a percent as the results of some top companies came good and hopes strengthened that European policy makers will support the euro. Traders were seen piling up position in CG, Realty and Bankex. Though, the monsoon worries are keeping the mood cautious as Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said that the country may face a "serious" situation if it does not rain in the next two months. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5150 and 17000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1451:631 while 70 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17017.36 up by 178.17 points or 1.06% after trading as high as 17037.24 and as low as 16919.14. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index up 0.85% while Small cap index was up 0.86%.

On the BSE sectoral space, CG up by 2.01%, Realty up by 1.89%, Bankex up by 1.76%, Power up by 1.51%, and HC up by 1.40% while there no was loser on the index.

ICICI Bank up by 3.47%, Cipla up by 2.25%, Sun Pharma up by 2.10% L&T up by 2.08% and Tata Motors up by 1.72% were the gainers on the Sensex, while Wipro down by 1.54%, Hindalco Industries down by 0.38%, TCS down by 0.27%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.10% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.05% were the major losers in the index.

Meanwhile, deficient rains have became a matter of serious concern, since the onset of monsoon, the country has received 22 per cent less rainfall than predicted with northwest region being the most affected with a deficiency reaching almost 42 per cent. Apart from the government and political leaders, the industry body CII too has expressed concern over the impact of deficient rainfall on the broader economy, at a time when there is already a sharp slowdown on account of various domestic and global factors.

CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee has been reported saying that 'not only will there be an impact on the performance of the agricultural sector but also on other sectors through the effect on rural incomes.'

In its latest release, the industry body has said that there is need to reduce the dependence of agriculture on monsoon by adopting technologies like drip irrigation, developing drought resistant quality of seeds, and promoting rainwater harvesting.

The suggestions made by CII include uniform implementation of the APMC Act across States, immediate delisting of perishables from the APMC list and giving farmers the freedom to sell fresh, perishable produce directly to food processing companies, aggregators and retailers, which can be possible only through uniform implementation of the APMC Act.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,154.70,up by 54.85 points or 1.08% after trading as high as 5,158.90 and as low as 5,129.75. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.68%, JP Associates up by 2.79%, AXIS Bank up by 2.76%, LT by 2.57% and Cairn up by 2.46%. While, Wipro down by 2.26%, TCS  down by 0.67%, HCL Tech down by 0.39%, Ambuja Cement  down by 0.38% and  Hindalco down by 0.30% were the major losers on the index.

Mostly Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng index up by 1.44%, Nikkei 225 up 0.50%, Taiwan Weighted up 0.42%,  Kospi Composite Index up 0.78% , Jakarta Composite  up by 0.35% and Straits Times was up 0.85%, while KLSE Composite down 0.01%, Shanghai Composite down 0.13% were the losers.