MARKETS HOLD IN GREEN

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, most of the Asian equity indices, after a negative start, have turned back into the green terrain on renewed confidence that major central banks will keep taking simulative steps to support their economies.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up position in Capital Goods, Metal and Power, while selling was seen in Realty, Health Care, and Oil & Gas sectors. In scrip specific development IT shares such as Tech Mahindra, Mahindra Satyam, Oracle Financial Services Software, Wipro, Infosys, Hexaware Technologies, MphasiS were trading firm after the Indian rupee fell to a six-week low against the US, dollar today, 1 March 2013. Seven education stocks such NIIT, Edserv Softsystems, Educomp Solutions, Aptech, Everonn Education, Zee Learn and Navneet Publication were trading in green after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the Union Budget 2013-14 increased allocation to the education sector. In scrip specific actions, United Spirits surged after Competition Commission of India approved UK major Diageo Plc's proposed majority stake purchase in the company. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading near their psychological 5700 and 18900 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was showing positive trend with advances to declines in ratio of 1051:957.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18948.36, up by 86.82 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 18966.30 and 18820.90. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46% and Small cap index has gained 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.56%, Metal up by 1.31%, Power up by 1.20%, Consumer Durables up by 1.04% and Auto up by 0.79% while, Realty down by 1.68%, Health Care down by 0.58% and Oil & Gas down by 0.23%  were top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up by 3.10%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.66%, Coal India up by 2.58%, L&T up by 2.14% and Wipro up by 2.00%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 2.36%, Bharti Airtel was down by 1.53%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.45%, NTPC was down by 1.26%, and TCS was down by 0.83% and were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the eight core sector industries grew by 3.9% in January 2013, up from 2.2% in the same month in 2012, mainly on the back of negative growth witnessed in the production of crude oil, natural gas, fertilizer and cement. However, the cumulative expansion of these industries in April-January period of 2012-13 slowed to 3.2% from 5% in the same period of the previous year.

On the positive side, petroleum refinery production grew by 10.5% in January 2013 compared to a negative growth of 4.6% in January 2012. On collective basis, it registered a growth of 7.3% during April-January 2012-13 compared to 3% growth during the same period of 2011-12. Coal production, registered a growth of 2.3% in January 2013 compared to positive growth of 7.7% in January 2012. Coal production recorded a growth of 5.2% during April-January 2012-13 compared to de-growth of 1.4% during the same period of 2011-12.

Steel production and electricity generation with weight 6.68% and 10.32% registered growth 9.4% and 5.9% in month under review against 4.5% and 3.2% growth in same month previous year. On collective basis, steel production registered 3.1% growth during April-January 2012-13 compared to 10.9% growth during the same period of last fiscal. Growth of electricity generation was 4.8% against 8.7% growth during the same period of 2011-12.

On the flip side, Crude oil, which occupies 5.22% weight age in index registered negative growth of 0.2% in the reporting month compared to a negative growth of 2% in January 2012. Cumulatively, crude oil production recorded a negative growth of 0.4% during April-January 2012-13 compared to its positive growth at 1.5% during the same period last fiscal.

Moreover, fertilizer production registered a negative growth of 9.1% for the reporting month against positive growth at 4% in the same month previous year. On collective basis, it registered a negative growth of 4% during April-January 2012-13 compared to a de-growth of 0.1% during the same period of 2011-12.

Cement and natural gas, which occupies 2.41% and 1.71% weightage, also registered negative growth of 6.6% and 16.8%, respectively for the reporting month compared to their growth of 10.9% and de-growth of 10.4% in January 2012. Cumulatively, cement and natural gas production recorded growth of 4.6% and a negative growth of 13.7% during April-January 2012-13. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,719.10 up by 26.05 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 5,728.15 and 5,679.90. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Power Grid up by 4.03%, BPCL up by 3.88%, JP Associate up by 3.45%, Jindal Steel up by 3.15% and Coal India up by 2.89%.
On the flip side, DLF down by 4.67%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.51%, Lupin down by 1.67%, Cairn down by 1.66%, and IDFC down by 1.51% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Jakarta Composite rose 0.67 points or 0.01% to 4,796.46, KLSE Composite strengthened 2.11 points or 0.13% to 1,639.74, Nikkei 225 surged 63.48 points or 0.55% to 11,622.84, Straits Times added 6.23 points or 0.19% to 3,276.18 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 60.39 points or 0.77% to 7,958.94.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite dropped 12.68 points or 0.54% to 2,352.92 and Hang Seng was down by 50.29 points or 0.22% to 22,969.98.

South Korean markets have remained closed for the trade today.