Key benchmark indices hovered in positive terrain in mid-morning trade. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 17.11 points or 0.08%, off close to 70 points from the day's high and up about 45 points from the day's low.
Capital goods stocks edged higher. Some realty stocks also gained. Piramal Enterprises surged after the company said that it has agreed to divest its entire equity stake, comprising 4.54 crore shares in Vodafone India to Prime Metals, an indirect subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, for a total consideration of Rs 8900 crore.
The Sensex edged higher in early trade after overnight rally in US stocks. The Sensex and the 50-unit CNX Nifty, both, hit record high. A bout of volatility was witnessed as the Sensex regained positive zone after a sudden slide pushed the barometer index into negative zone from positive zone in morning trade. The Sensex hovered in positive terrain in mid-morning trade.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1043.86 crore on Wednesday, 9 April 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
At 11:20 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 17.11 points or 0.08% to 22,719.45. The index jumped 90.15 points at the day's high of 22,792.49 in early trade, a lifetime high for the index. The index fell 29.62 points at the day's low of 22,672.72 in morning trade.
The CNX Nifty was up 0.65 points or 0.01% at 6,796.85. The index hit a high of 6,816.45 in intraday trade, a lifetime high for the index. The index hit a low of 6,781.25 in intraday trade.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 49.23 points or 0.68% at 7,334.62. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 51.32 points or 0.69% to 7,478.62. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,330 shares rose and 908 shares fell. A total of 107 shares were unchanged.
Tata Motors (up 2.86%), State Bank of India (SBI) (up 2.15%) and NTPC (up 1.57%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
Capital goods stocks edged higher. Praj Industries (up 1.37%), Suzlon Energy (up 1.14%), Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering Company (up 4.95%), BEML (up 1.46%), Punj Lloyd (up 7.26%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) (up 2.56%), ABB India (up 0.7%), Alstom T&D India (up 0.1%), Siemens (up 1.6%), Havells India (up 1.44%), Thermax (up 1.13%), L&T (up 0.2%), and Lakshmi Machine Works (up 0.86%), edged higher.
Some realty stocks gained. DLF (up 1.33%), Anant Raj (up 0.97%), Housing Development & Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 3.35%), Parsvnath Developers (up 0.57%), Unitech (up 1.27%) and Prestige Estates (up 0.06%) gained.
Piramal Enterprises rose 6.87% after the company today, 10 April 2014, said it has agreed to divest its entire equity stake, comprising 4.54 crore shares in Vodafone India to Prime Metals, an indirect subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, for a total consideration of Rs 8900 crore, valuing the shares of Vodafone India at Rs 1,960 per share. Piramal had acquired these shares at an average price of Rs 1,290 per share for a total consideration of Rs 5864 crore in two tranches during the year ended 31 March 2012 (FY 2012).
Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Piramal Group said: "The equity purchase in Vodafone was consistent with our objective of making investments that offer opportunity to generate attractive long term return on equity. I am glad to say that we have delivered against our targeted returns with this investment".
Ramco Systems rose 1.91% to Rs 200 after the company said it will issue 79.58 lakh shares on rights basis in the ratio of 1:2 at Rs 155 per share. The announcement was made before market hours today, 10 April 2014. Ramco Systems said that a meeting of the Rights Issue 2013 Committee of the Board of Directors was held on Wednesday, 9 April 2014 to consider the terms of the rights issue and for fixing the record date. Accordingly, the rights issue size was set at 79.58 lakh shares with rights entitlement ratio pegged at 1:2, i.e. one equity share for every two fully paid-up equity shares held as on the record date. The rights issue price was set at Rs 155 per rights equity share. The issue opening date is 5 May 2014 and closing date is 19 May 2014 (The issue closing date may be extended by the Committee to an extent that the issue remains open for a period not exceeding 30 days from issue opening date), the company said. All the equity shares to be issued pursuant to the issue shall rank pari passu with the existing equity shares of the company, Ramco Systems said.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 60.195, compared with its close of 60.14/15 on Wednesday, 9 April 2014.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) next undertakes monetary policy review on 3 June 2014. The RBI left its main lending rate viz. the repo rate unchanged at 8% after a monetary policy review on 1 April 2014, as consumer-price inflation eased to a two-year low and as the rupee firmed up against the dollar.
The next major trigger for the stock market is Q4 March 2014 and year ended 31 March 2014 (FY 2014) corporate earnings. Investors and analysts will closely watch the management commentary that would accompany the results to see if there is any revision in their future earnings forecast of the company for the year ending 31 March 2015 (FY 2015) and/or for the year ending 31 March 2016 (FY 2016). Indian companies will start reporting their Q4 and full year results from mid-April 2014, with Infosys announcing its results on 15 April 2014. The results season will conclude in end-May 2014.
A major near term trigger for the stock market is the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The 36 days long voting process began on 7 April 2014 and will conclude on 12 May 2014. The results will be declared on 16 May 2014 after which India will get a new government. The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on June 1 and the new House has to be constituted by May 31.
Polling for 91 seats in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections began today, 10 April 2014. Polling is being held in the sugarcane belts of western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, the drought and hailstorm-hit Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, the Vindhya region of Madhya Pradesh, the plains of Jammu, the politically charged Kerala and the Maoist-affected belts of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Asian stocks edged higher in choppy trade on Thursday, 10 April 2014, as China's central bank pumped money into the banking system for the first time in nine weeks. Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were up 0.08% to 0.96%. In Singapore, the Straits Times index was off 0.2%.
Stocks tumbled in Indonesia after the nation's early legislative vote results showed the opposition party favored by investors failed to win enough support to run for the presidency without forming a coalition. The Jakarta Composite index was off 3.18%.
Chinese exports fell 6.6% in March, extending the steepest drop since 2009 in February and missing the estimate. China's imports plunged 11.3% last month down from growth of 10.1% in February and below the estimates. China's export data have been distorted by inflated numbers in early 2013, when some companies filed fake invoices to disguise capital inflows.
China's Premier Li Keqiang today, 10 April 2014, said China will not take any forceful stimulus measures to counter short-term fluctuations in its economic growth, stressing again that authorities have flexibility in achieving the 2014 growth target. Sustaining healthy growth in China's labour market is most important for the government, Li told an investment forum in China's southern island of Hainan. Whether China's annual economic growth comes in slightly above or below a targeted 7.5% is less important in comparison, he said.
The Bank of Korea left its key rate unchanged at its first policy meeting under Lee Ju Yeol, as low inflation gives the new governor room to support growth in Asia's fourth-biggest economy. The central bank held the seven-day repurchase rate at 2.5% for an 11th straight month, it said in a statement in Seoul today, 10 April 2014.
Trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow could advance 7 points at the opening bell on Thursday, 10 April 2014. US stocks rallied on Wednesday, 9 April 2014, with technology shares gaining the most in two months, as minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting eased concern about the timing of future interest-rate increases.
Several Fed policy makers said a rise in their median projection for the main interest rate exaggerated the likely speed of tightening, according to minutes of their March 18-19 meeting released on Wednesday, 9 April 2014. Federal Reserve officials fretted last month that investors would overreact to policymakers' fresh forecasts on interest rates that appeared to map out a more aggressive cycle of rate hikes than was actually anticipated.
The published rate forecasts of the current 16 Fed policymakers, known as the "dots" charts, suggested the federal funds rate would end 2016 at 2.25%, a half percentage point above Fed officials' projections in December. In minutes of the March 18-19 meeting published on Wednesday, several of the meeting's participants said the charts "overstated the shift in the projections," suggesting the Fed is not as eager to tighten policy as the dots had seemed to suggest. The minutes also showed that officials wanted to emphasize that the official policy statement, and not the dots charts, give a better indication of the likely path of rates.
After its March meeting, the Fed said in a statement that it would wait a "considerable time" following the end of its bond-buying program before finally raising interest rates.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review at a two-day meeting on 29-30 April 2014. The Federal Reserve on 19 March 2014 decided after the conclusion of a monetary policy review to trim its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion to $55 billion.
In Europe, a monthly meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England's (BoE) for monetary policy review is scheduled today, 10 April 2014.
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