Weekly: Broader markets outperform

Key benchmark indices ended the shortened first trading week of fiscal 2012-13 on a positive note.The BSE Sensex eked out a 0.47% gain at 17,486 and the Nifty added 0.51% at 5,323.

However, the broader markets had a thumping start with the midcap index up 2% and the smallcap index rose 3.25% for the week, outperfroming the benchamrk Sensex.

Meanwhile, the HSBC purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 54.7 points in March versus 56.6 points in February, due to weakening new order growth and output due to capacity constraints. The January PMI stood at 57.5.India witnessed an increase in demand, but even then the growth in the manufacturing sector slowed to the lowest in three months because of bottlenecks like power cuts and raw material shortage, the HSBC PMI showed.

Macros

The country's exports grew an annual 4.3% to $24.6 billion in February, while imports rose 20.7% to $39.8 billion, government data showed. With this the trade deficit widened to $15.2 billion during the month from $14.8 billion in January, while exports between April and February grew 21.4% to $267.4  billion.

Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar said last month India's trade deficit for the 2011-12 financial year that ended on March 31 would likely touch $175-180 billion from an earlier estimate of $160 billion.

Also, the government announced the borrowing plan Rs 1.87 lakh crore through auctioning of Treasury Bills (T-bills) in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

The government will raise Rs 1.22 lakh crore through auction 91-day T-bills during the April-June quarter, a Finance Ministry statement said.

Besides, the government plans to raise Rs 30,000 crore and Rs 35,000 crore through auctioning of 182 days and 364 days T-bills, respectively.

Stocks and Indices

The consumer durables indices soared this week and ended up 8% at 6,812.

From the consumer durables pack, Whirlpool soared 22%, followed by C Mahindra - up 21%. TTK Prestige, Titan Industries and VIP Industries jumped 10-12% each. Titan Industries meanwhile has received government nod for direct gold imports.

Power and PSU indices followed. Rate sensitive realty and banking indices rose around 4% each.

From the realty space, DB Realty, Oberoi Realty, Prestige Realty and HDIL soared 5-9% each. Key gainers from the banking space were IndusInd Bank, Union Bank, Bank of India, Yes Bank and KOtak Mahindra Bank - up 5-12% each.

The BSE mid-cap index surged 4.5% to 6,474. Small-cap index added 6% during the week to end at 6,845.

From the small cap space, Sujana Tower gained 50% during the week. Among other key gainers were Hindustan Dorr Oliver, Commex Technologies, Andrew Yule and ARSS Infra. Meanwhile, Varun Industries, Santowin Corp, Odyssey Corp and Entegra slipped 12-22% each.

From the Sensex-30, 26 stocks closed the week in the green. Among them the top gainers were BHEL, ONGC, Hindalco, Tata Power and Tata Steel which gained between 4-8%.

The major losers were Hindustan Unilever down 3%, Bharti Airtel down 2% and Sun Pharma and Baja Auto lost 0.3-1%