Key benchmark indices edged higher in early trade as firmness in Asian stocks boosted sentiment. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 69.61 points or 0.33%, up about 15 points from the day's low and off close to 30 points from the day's high. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. Except BSE FMCG index, all the sectoral indices on BSE were in the green.
Tata Power Company gained after the company said that the duly empowered committee of the board of directors of the company will meet on Saturday, 8 March 2014, to consider and decide upon the terms and conditions of the proposed rights issue including the rights entitlement ratio, the issue price, the issue size, record date, the timing of the rights issue and other related matters.
Asian stocks rose on Thursday with Japanese stocks gaining after a committee advising the ministry that oversees the world's largest pension fund said it no longer needs to focus on domestic bonds.
The market sentiment was also boosted by data showing that foreign funds remained net buyers of Indian stocks on Wednesday, 5 March 2014. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 737.29 crore on Wednesday, 5 March 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
At 9:31 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 69.61 points or 0.33% to 21,346.47. The index gained 99.73 points at the day's high of 21,376.59 in early trade. The index rose 53.02 points at the day's low of 21,329.88 in early trade.
The CNX Nifty was up 16.60 points or 0.26% to 6,345.25. The index hit a high of 6,354.70 in intraday trade. The index hit a low of 6,339.70 in intraday trade.
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The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 34.68 points or 0.52% to 6,662.19 and the BSE Small-Cap index rose 26.79 points or 0.41% to 6,573.23. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 610 shares gained and 177 shares fell. A total of 45 shares were unchanged.
Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 27 stocks rose and rest of them fell. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.49%), ICICI Bank (up 1.06%) and GAIL (India) (up 0.81%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
NTPC rose 0.57%. The company has reportedly signed a term loan agreement for Rs 500 crore with State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ). This loan has a door-to-door tenure of 15 years and will be utilised to part finance the capital expenditure of NTPC, reports added.
Tata Power Company gained 0.71% after the company said after market hours on Wednesday, 5 March 2014 that the duly empowered committee of the board of directors of the company will meet on Saturday, 8 March 2014, to consider and decide upon the terms and conditions of the proposed rights issue including the rights entitlement ratio, the issue price, the issue size, record date, the timing of the rights issue and other related matters.
Car major Maruti Suzuki India rose 0.93%. The company after trading hours on Wednesday, 5 March 2014, said its total production declined 9.8% to 1.08 lakh units in February 2014 over February 2013. The monthly production data includes CBU imports of Kizashi.
Separately, Maruti Suzuki India announced after market hours on Wednesday, 5 March 2014 that Indian Railways and Maruti flagged off a new high capacity railway rake called (BCACBM) on Wednesday setting a new benchmark in transportation of new cars through railways. Named 'Flexi deck auto-wagon rake', it brings the advantages of higher capacity, flexibility, faster speed and environmental friendliness to rail transportation of cars.
Arunendra Kumar, Chairman, Railway Board and Mr. R.C. Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India, jointly flagged of the country's 1st Flexi Deck Auto-Wagon rake from Gurgaon railway station.
The 'Flexi deck auto-wagon rake' designed by Indian Railway's Research Design and Standards Organization has 20 per cent additional capacity (318 cars) as compared to the current twin-decker rakes (265 cars), used for rail transportation. The new rake, with its height adjustable middle-deck is highly flexible and can transport vehicles of multiple dimensions. The new rake can move at speed of upto 95 km per hour as compared to 65 km per hour of the existing rakes. The new rake can travel between Gurgaon and Bangalore in around 5 days as compared to 7 days by road transportation. Transporting cars by new 'Flexi deck auto-wagon rake' will lead to reduction in carbon emission making it more environment friendly.
The 1st Flexi deck auto-wagon rake consisting of 27 wagons chugged off to Nidavanda, Bangalore from Gurgaon carrying a mixed load of Maruti Suzuki cars including Swift, Dzire, Alto, Wagon R and Omni. Maruti Suzuki is India's first automobile company to procure flexi deck auto-wagon rakes. Maruti Suzuki has initially procured three such rakes of 27 wagons each. These rakes will be primarily deployed in the high-volume West and South India destinations. In the long term, the company will dispatch cars through railways to several destinations like Nagpur, Siliguri, Mumbai, Pune, Mundra, Kolkata etc. In the coming times Maruti Suzuki will order more rakes to meet its growing transportation requirement.
On the occasion of the flag off, Mr. Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and CEO, Maruti Suzuki said, We are delighted to have initiated this contemporary mode of transport to the Indian automobile industry. Indian Railways deserves all the credit for their foresight and tremendous enthusiasm and co-operation to make this initiative move from a concept to reality within a short span of around 36 months.
On the occasion Mr. M.M. Singh, Chief Operating Officer (Production), Maruti Suzuki said, The induction of 'flexi deck auto-wagon rake' will start a new chapter in automotive logistics in the country. Trains are one of the fastest, safest and eco-friendly modes of transportation. With these newly designed rakes we have been able to increase the load carrying capacity along with a high flexibility to cater to a variety of vehicle dimensions. We are happy that Indian Railways supported the initiative of Maruti Suzuki to enhance the country's transportation infrastructure.
To streamline the railways transportation, Maruti Suzuki will develop infrastructure at the off-loading destinations. Initially, Maruti Suzuki has developed a railway station at Nidavanda, near Bangalore. The Nidavanda station has a capacity to handle nearly 300 vehicles presently. As Maruti Suzuki has big volumes for South India destinations, Bangalore will be used as a feeder point for dealer network.
With the 'Flexi deck auto-wagon rake' in place the Indian Railways and Maruti Suzuki will jointly relieve the road infrastructure of the excessive load and bring modern, high capacity vehicle transportation to the country's logistics map.
Interestingly, the Maruti Suzuki has been using rail transportation mode for over two decades. In 2008 Maruti Suzuki joined hands with Indian railways and developed double-deck container trains to enhance the load carrying capacity. These continue to be used by Maruti Suzuki mainly for the export vehicles from its' manufacturing plants in Haryana to Mundra port.
While the dispatch through railways increased from 2% in 2007-08 to over 5% in 2012-13, with the commissioning of the Flexi Deck Auto-Wagon rakes, the company is confident rail transportation would substantially increase in the future.
India's current account deficit (CAD) narrowed sharply to $4.2 billion (0.9% of GDP) in Q3 of 2013-14 from $31.9 billion (6.5% of GDP) in Q3 of 2012-13 which is also lower than $5.2 billion (1.2% of GDP) in Q2 of 2013-14. The lower CAD was primarily on account of a decline in the trade deficit as merchandise exports picked up and imports moderated, particularly gold imports. The data was as per the preliminary data on India's balance of payments (BoP) for the third quarter (Q3), from October-December 2013, of the financial year 2013-14, presented by Reserve Bank of India in Statements I and II.
On a BoP basis, merchandise exports increased by 7.5% to $ 79.8 billion in Q3 of 2013-14 (3.9% in Q3 of 2012-13) on the back of significant growth especially in the exports of engineering goods, readymade garments, iron ore, marine products and chemicals. On the other hand, merchandise imports at $ 112.9 billion, recorded a decline of 14.8% in Q3 of 2013-14 as against an increase of 10.4% in Q3 of 2012-13. Decline in imports in Q3 was primarily led by a steep decline in gold imports, which amounted to $3.1 billion as compared to $17.8 billion in Q3 of 2012-13 and $3.9 billion in Q2 of 2013-14.
As a result, the merchandise trade deficit (BoP basis) contracted by around 43% to $33.2 billion in Q3 of 2013-14 from $58.4 billion a year ago.
Reserve Bank of India next undertakes monetary policy review on 1 April 2014. Citing price pressures, the Reserve Bank of India raised its key lending rates by 25 basis points after Third Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for 2013-14 on 28 January 2014.
On the political front, the Election Commission on Wednesday, 5 March 2014, announced the dates for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The polls will be held between 7 April 2014 and 12 May 2014 in nine phases. The counting of votes will be take place on 16 May 2014. With the announcement of poll dates, the Model Code of Conduct for governments and political parties comes into force with immediate effect. Therefore the Cabinet will no longer be able to take key decisions. Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said the dates have been decided keeping in view certain factors. "The parties brought to our notice a wide range of issues pertaining to security, revising the ceiling of poll expenditure, keeping the regional cultures and festivals in view while deciding dates," Sampath said.
The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31. Along with the Lok Sabha election, Andhra Pradesh, including the regions comprising Telangana, Odisha and Sikkim will go to polls to elect new assemblies. AP, Odisha and Sikkim assemblies come to end on June 2, June 7 and May 7 respectively.
An estimated 81.4 crore voters will be eligible to vote in the coming elections after 9.71 crore new voters have been added to the rolls since the last elections. From the coming elections, candidates in a Parliamentary constituency in bigger states can spend up to Rs 70 lakh on their campaign, up from Rs 40 lakh in 2011. In the 2009 elections, it was Rs 25 lakh.
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections will see the introduction of "None of the Above" (NOTA) option in voting, which came into vogue in the assembly elections a few months ago.
Asian stocks rose on Thursday with Japanese stocks gaining after a committee advising the ministry that oversees the world's largest pension fund said it no longer needs to focus on domestic bonds. Key benchmark indices in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong were up 0.06% to 0.76%. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.1%.
Business activity across emerging markets expanded in February at the slowest pace in five months, weighed down by weaker manufacturing in big developing countries such as Russia and China, a survey showed on Thursday.
HSBC's composite emerging markets index of manufacturing and services purchasing managers' surveys slipped for the third month running to 51.1 in February. It stayed under the 2013 average of 51.7 and well below a long-run level of 54.0. But the monthly index remained above the 50 threshold which marks the difference between expansion and contraction.
Based on data from purchasing managers at about 8,000 firms in 17 countries, the survey showed Chinese factory output stayed below the 50 mark. Manufacturing in Russia, India and Brazil hovered just above 50.
US stocks were little changed Wednesday as investors assessed the Ukraine crisis and weaker- than-estimated data on payrolls and services.
US companies added 139,000 workers in February, fewer than the market estimates, a sign that employers were waiting for a pickup in demand before boosting headcount, a report from the ADP Research Institute in Roseland, New Jersey showed.
Separate data indicated that service industries in the US expanded in February at the slowest pace in four years, reflecting a plunge in hiring that shows the biggest part of the economy is struggling as harsher weather weighs on consumers and businesses. The Institute for Supply Management's non- manufacturing index slipped to 51.6 in February from 54 the previous month.
The Federal Reserve said the economy in most regions grew last month even as harsh winter weather impeded hiring, disrupted supply chains, and kept customers away from stores and auto dealerships. Eight of the Fed's 12 districts "reported improved levels of activity, but in most cases the increases were characterized as modest to moderate," the central bank said in its Beige Book business survey.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review on 18-19 March 2014. After a monetary policy review, the FOMC on 29 January 2014 announced it will reduce monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion to $65 billion.
In Europe, a monthly meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) is scheduled today, 6 March 2014, in Frankfurt to decide euro zone interest rates.
A two-day meeting of Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) ends today, 6 March 2014, to decide interest rates in UK. Policy rates are expected to remain unchanged at record low. The UK's central bank slashed interest rates to record low of 0.5% at the height of the financial crisis in 2009.
High-level diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine made little apparent headway at talks in Paris on Wednesday, with Moscow and Washington at odds and Russia's foreign minister refusing to recognise his Ukrainian counterpart. US Secretary of State John Kerry said discussions would continue in the coming days in an attempt to stabilise the crisis and he expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again in Rome on Thursday. Russia had earlier rebuffed Western demands that its forces that have seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region should return to their bases.
NATO, at a meeting in Brussels, announced it was cutting back on cooperation with Russia to try to pressure it into backing down on Ukraine and suspended planning for a joint mission linked to Syrian chemical weapons. The alliance said it would step up engagement with Ukraine's new leadership.
The European Union offered Ukraine's new pro-Western government 11 billion euros in financial aid in the next couple of years provided Kiev reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund. Germany, the EU's biggest economy, also promised bilateral financial help
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