MARKETS CONTINUE TO GAIN

Indian equity markets continued trading firm in the late morning session on Friday, amid increased foreign fund inflows. Key equity benchmarks continue to rise and are heading for its biggest weekly gain since the week ended December 1, 2012. The Sensex was up by 146 points, while NSE benchmark Nifty gained over 45 points. Meanwhile, markets were also boosted on expected capital inflows from a government-owned power company's share sale. In currency markets, rupee continued trading higher against greenback amid increasing dollar selling by some banks and exporters. On sectoral front, banking stocks were trading higher, on rate cut expectations from RBI later this month, while technology shares fell on profit-taking. On global front, most Asian markets were trading higher following another record-breaking close for Wall Street's Dow Jones index, while Tokyo rose for a seventh straight session due to weakening yen. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,500 shares on the gaining side against 851 shares on the losing side while 104 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,560.26, up by 146.72 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 19,581.95 and 19,477.61. There were 22 stocks advancing against 7 declines and one remains unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.68% and Small cap index was up by 0.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.50%, PSU up by 1.36%, FMCG up by 1.25%, Metal up by 1.19% and Power up by 1.14% while, IT down by 0.71% and Teck down by 0.42% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up by 2.99%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.56%, HDFC up by 2.17%, Gail India up by 2.00% and Tata Steel up by 1.80%.

On the flip side, Infosys was down by 1.32%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.17%, TCS was down by 0.76%, Tata Motors was down by 0.75% and Hindalco was down by 0.40% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in the first nine months of current financial year, FDI inflows in India registered a sluggish growth to $13.92 billion, a decline of 39%, as against $23 billion in the same period a year ago and $14.93 billion in 2010-11. Sectors, which received foreign inflows, were services, Information and Broadcasting, metallurgical industries, chemicals and textiles.

Though, no separate data has been maintained on investment by the overseas Indians but as per the RBI, India received $22.45 billion in 2009-10 and $26.73 billion in 2008-09 from them.

Last year, with a view to increase FDI inflows, the government had liberalized the foreign direct investment policy and relaxed FDI policy in sectors, including multi-brand retail, single-brand retail, commodity exchanges, power exchanges, broadcasting, non-banking financial institutions and asset reconstruction companies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,909.10 up by 45.80 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 5,914.15 and 5,883.00. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 4.02%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.86%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.44%, GAIL up by 2.23% and HDFC up by 2.23%.

On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.32%, Dr Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.03%, TCS down by 0.68%, Tata Motors down by 0.65% and DLF down by 0.48% were the major losers on the index.

Most Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.23%, Hang Seng surged 1.70%, Jakarta Composite strengthened 0.47%, KLSE Composite 0.06%, Nikkei 225 soared 2.64%, KOSPI Composite was up by 0.08% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.69%.

On the flip side, Straits Times slipped 0.20% was the only loser.