MARKETS TRADE IN GREEN

Indian equities have trimmed losses to trade near the neutral line on back of strong buying in frontline counters in the late morning session. On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green on the positive comments from Chinese  Premier Wen Jiabao who said that the government will increase measures to support growth in the world's second-largest economy has boosted sentiments. Traders were seen piling up position in Healthcare (HC), Auto and in Consumer Durable sector while selling was witnessed in IT, Metal and TECk sector. Cipla, DR Reddy, and Sun Pharma, from HC pack was seen trading in green driving the markets higher. Moreover, investors stayed on the sideline ahead of June inflation data, to be released later today. On the home turf, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,200 and 17,200 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1230:840 while 86 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,217.76 up by 4.06 points or 0.02% after trading as high as 17,282.30 and as low as 17,196.98. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index up 0.11% while Small cap index was up 0.29%.

On the BSE sectoral space, HC up by 1.03%, Auto up by 0.75%, CD up by 0.73%, FMCG up by 0.31 and Bankex up by 0.10% while IT down by 1.13%, Metal down by 1.07%, TECk down by 0.64%, Realty down by 0.63% and CG down by 0.24% were the losers on the index.

Bharti Airtel up by 1.87%, Cipla up by 1.66%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.63%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.44% and Sun Pharma up by 1.31% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Tata Steel down by 2.57%, Jindal Steel down by 2.20%, Infosys down by 1.29%, TCS down by 0.97% and Gail India down by 0.86% were the major losers in the index.

 Mean while , The Food Ministry in view of the surplus domestic production in the country has proposed imposing 10 per cent import duty on sugar. However, the government has not proposed higher duty so that the import option should be kept open to the traders in times of shortages. The Food Ministry has been said to have made recommendation to rationalise the duty structure on sugar in line with other farm commodities and has suggested the import duty on sugar to be capped at 10 per cent.

The sugar industry body ISMA, has said in its recent statement that the sugar production in the 2012-13 marketing year is expected to be higher than the demand at 25 million tonnes, annual domestic demand is of around 22 million tonnes. However, ISMA has lowered its all India sugar production estimate for 2012-13 by close to 4% as it expects output in biggest sugar-producing state Maharashtra to decline by about 16%.

ISMA estimates that out of Sugar production for 2012-13 season of 25 million tonnes, 78 lakh tonne is expected to be from UP, 76 lakh tonne from Maharashtra, 30 lakh tonne from Karnataka, 25 lakh tonne by Tamil Nadu, 10 lakh tonne each by Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Sugar export was brought under the open general licence (OGL) in May, before that the government had allowed export of 2 million tonnes of sugar in view of higher production. Altogether, traders have got nod to export 7 lakh tones under the OGL so far.  

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,225.90, down  by 1.35 points or 0.03% after trading as high as 5,246.85 and as low as 5,220.60. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.92%, Cipla up by 1.87%, Maruti up by 1.65%, DR Reddy by 1.65% and Sun Pharma up by 1.49%.  While Tata Steel down by 2.66%, Jindal Steel down by 2.34%, Reliance Infra down by 1.56%, Infosys down by 1.49% and JP Associaties down by 1.23% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Hang Seng index up by 0.26%, Nikkei 225 up 0.05%, Kospi Composite Index up 0.21%, Strait Times up 0.25%, Jakarta Composite up 0.94% and KLSE Composite up 0.50% while Taiwan Weighted down 0.08%, Shanghai Composite was down  1.27%, were the losers..