MARKETS IN FINE FETTLE

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 majority of Asian markets were trading in green on hopes that central banks in the US and China may ease monetary policy to support the economies. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in IT, Metal and TECk sector, while selling was witnessed in Auto, and Oil & Gas sector.  Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL Tech from IT space were trading in green edging the markets higher. Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Sterlite Industries and Hindalco Industries from Metal pack were seen trading firm in green driving the markets higher. On the other hand, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Bajaj Auto from Auto pack were trading in red capping markets' upward trajectory. In the scrip specific development, Videocon Industries' jumped as its arm discovered reservoirs of oil and gas in Sergipe-Alagoas Basin. Kamdhenu Ispat soared on plan to expand its paints division.  GVK Power gained on getting environmental clearance for Alpha coal, rail project in Australia .The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5400 and 17900 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1270:772 while 107 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17933.27 up by 86.41 points or 0.48% after touching a high of 17950.93 and low of 17856.29. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.51%, while Small cap index was up by 0.53%.

On the BSE sectoral space, IT up by 1.32%, Metal up by 1.28%, TECk up by 0.97%, CD up by 0.85% and HC up by 0.79% were the gainers while Auto down by 0.10% and Oil & Gas down by 0.05% were the  only the losers on the index.

Jindal Steel up by 2.33%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.95%, Tata Steel up by 1.68%, Wipro up by 1.68%, Cipla up by 1.57% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while Bajaj Auto down by 0.87%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.52%, Tata Motors down by 0.42%, ONGC down by 0.35% and NTPC down by 0.23% were the major losers on the index.

Meanwhile, in a move to allow easier cheap dollar funding, Finance Ministry has decided to further ease the norms for raising external commercial borrowing (ECBs) by domestic firms, particularly those in the realty sector. The high-level committee on ECBs, which met on Wednesday, although kept the overall window for ECBs unchanged at the current $40 billion, it allowed for the first time cash-starved micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to access such funds. The committee has allowed MSMEs to indirectly access such funds through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), besides easing the refinancing norms for infrastructure and manufacturing firms. As per the new norms, the companies could now borrow up to 75% of the forex earnings of the last three years, against the earlier cap of 50%. In addition, special purpose vehicles (SPVs) of these companies incorporated over a year ago will also be eligible to tap this route to raise resources at a lower cost.

Further, the committee also has permitted eligible non-resident entities (NREs) to provide credit enhancement to the issue of rupee bonds by all Indian companies. FII's have now been permitted to invest up to $5 billion in these bonds, which stays well within the overall corporate bond limit of $45 billion. The minimum maturity period of such bonds has been reduced to three years from the present seven years maturity period.

The rule relaxation is in backdrop of finance ministry's drive to prop up manufacturing activity and boost infrastructure construction, which are termed as engine of growth for the Indian economy. However, the finance ministry will finalize upon these liberalized norms for these borrowings in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

 The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,437.30, up by 24.45 points or 0.45 % after trading in a range of 5,442.60 and 5,424.60. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Ranbaxy up by 2.85%, Jindal Steel up by 2.03%, Wipro up by 2.00%, Tata Steel by 1.86% and Hindalco up by 1.77%. While, Power Grid down by 0.88%, Ambuja Cement by 0.88%, Bajaj-Auto down by 0.83%, ONGC down by 0.58% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.54% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were trading in green; Straits Times up by 0.55%, Kospi Composite Index up by 0.25%, Nikkei 225 up 0.40%, Hang Seng index up by 0.91% and Jakarta Composite up by 0.38% while KLSE Composite down by 0.05%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.18% and Taiwan Weighted down by 0.08% were the losers.