MARKETS COOL OFF

Indian equity markets have cooled off a bit in the mid morning session after making an enthusiastic start of the session. However, continued buying by funds, driven by a firm global market trend and easing food inflation are keeping the momentum on the positive side. In addition, corporate-friendly Budget proposals are also supporting the ongoing rally on the bourses. On the global front, trend on other Asian bourses remain firm following overnight gains in the US markets. The US future indices too are showing an uptick in the screen trade. Back home, on the BSE Sectoral front, stocks from Banking; Auto and Information Technology are enticing investor's attention, while the stocks from capital Goods counter are languishing at the bottom. The 30 share index--Sensex--on BSE is about to touch its key physiological level of 18500 marks. While 50 scrip index--Nifty--on NSE has sustained its important level of 5500 mark and is trading well above it. The broader indices though have trimmed their gains in line with the larger peers but they too still are trading well above 0.50% each. The overall markets breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances, outperforming declines in the ratio of 1533:776, while, 93 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,620.30, up by 130.54 points or 0.71%. The index has touched a high of 18,736.97 and a low of 18,582.30 respectively. There were 26 stocks advancing against just 4 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.55% and 0.71%, respectively.

All the sectoral indices on the BSE remained higher, Bankex up by 1.24 %, Auto up by 1.18%, IT up by 0.94%, TECk up by 0.75%, and  Healthcare up by 0.64% were the major gainers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero Honda up by 2.66%, Tata Power up by 2.59%,HDFC up by 1.97%, M&M up by 1.90% and Bajaj Auto was up by 1.85%.

L&T down by 1.10%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.57%, BHEL down by 0.26% and ONGC down by 0.04% were the only losers on the index.

State-owned miner National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has finalized an agreement with a consortium comprising SVAI of Austria and Nagarjuna Construction Company for turnkey execution of a sinter plant complex, marking the first contract among the nine packages for the three million tonne steel plant that the company is setting up at Nagarnar.

The sinter plant will be catering to 80 per cent of the ferrous feed to the blast furnace. The schedule of the project is 33 months from the effective date of contract.

Recently state owned miner announced that it is planning to sign a 50:50 joint venture (JV) pact with Tata Steel for setting up a 2 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant at Bastar in Chhattisgarh.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,573.15, up by 36.95 points or 0.67%. The index has touched a high of 5,608.20 and a low of 5,561.60 respectively. There were36 stocks advancing against just 14 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 2.89%, Reliance Power up by 2.55%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.39%, Hero Honda up by 2.37%, Hero Honda up by 2.10% and Bajaj Auto up by 2.10%.

The top losers of the index were L&T down by 1.42%, Ranbaxy down by 1.27%, Sesa Goa down by 1.19%, Cairn India down by 1.00% and SAIL was down by 0.63%.

Meanwhile, Drugmaker Cipla has launched a breakthrough screening technology called the No Touch Breast Scan (NTBS) in India recently. NTBS is the first painless, non-invasive and radiation-free breast scanning technique for detecting breast cancer at an early stage.

Three centres across India have already installed the 40 lakh worth machine. The cost of each NTBS test would range between Rs 800 to 1000, depending on the pricing determined individually by the hospitals and centres. With introduction of this technology in India, Cipla has entered into the diagnostic market.

Developed by UE Life Sciences, the NTBS is the world's first fully computerized thermal imaging technology with dual IR cameras which can find thermal changes at less than 0.08 degree C. The NTBS using infrared imaging creates a sophisticated heat-map of the breast without using any radiation. Thermal imaging has been approved by the FDA several years ago for early diagnosis of breast cancer.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite was up by 0.22%, Hang Seng was up by 1.19%, Jakarta Composite was up by 1.06%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.92%, Nikkei 225 was up by 1.12%, Straits Times gained 1.20%, Seoul Composite added 1.69% and Taiwan Weighted increased 0.58%.