Benchmarks pare gains as sentiments turn volatile in last hours of F&O expiry

Local bourses have slipped quite a lot from the high point of the day as investors chose to square off positions in the mid afternoon trades. The BSE Sensex has shaved off over 200 points after hitting intraday high of 19,575.16 while the NSE's Nifty is trading about 70 points below its intraday high of 5,872.00. The rebound in international crude oil prices too spooked sanguine local mood on the settlement day of March series F&O contract. On the global front, cues remained optimistic as most Asian indices finished in the positive territory while the European counterparts too traded in the green zone.  Back home, hefty profit booking was witnessed in rate sensitive counters like Auto, Banks and Realty which are languishing at the bottom of the BSE sectoral table. However, gains in sectors like information technology, FMCG and Capital Goods resisted the frontline indices from drifting below the neutral line. Meanwhile, the broader markets remained under pressure after the tremendous rally in last session and are trading with moderate losses. The market breadth on the BSE was in favour of advances in the ratio of 1266:1525 while 100 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,368.91, up by 78.73 points or 0.41%. The index has touched a high of 19,575.16 and a low of 19,320.26 respectively. 16 stocks were advancing against 14 declines on the index.

In the broader markets the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices slipped 0.36% and 0.13% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.48%, FMCG up by 1.17%, CG up by 0.94%, Teck up by 0.83% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.59%. On the other hand Bankex index down 1.21%, Realty down 0.78%, Auto down 0.53%, Healthcare down 0.28% and CD down 0.10% remained the top laggards in the space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.91%, Hero Honda up by 2.54%, ONGC up by 1.75%, HUL up by 1.71% and ITC was up by 1.58%.

On the flip side, SBI down by 2.39%, RCom down by 2.39%, Cipla down by 2.33%, JP Associates down by 2.01% and M&M down by 1.70% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India's engineering exports are all set to cross the $60 billion mark in the current fiscal, proving that the country's manufacturing industry was finally maturing and the vast know-how created in the days of blind import substitution were finally beginning to pay in the post-reform ages.

During the first 11 months of the current financial year, India's overall engineering exports have grown by over 80% to touch $57 billion. Although there is a lot of contribution from the low base effect from the last year in this performance, nonetheless, it does indicate that India was picking up its game in manufacturing as well.

According to the commerce and industry ministry, total engineering exports are likely to be over $60 billion in the current financial year. This will also bring the engineering sector much closer to the flagship IT industry which is expected to total exports worth a similar amount in the current fiscal. In fact the engineering players contend that overall level of exports would have been still higher if there were no financial problems including the sovereign debt crisis in many countries of Europe.

India's growth story started following the deregulation of the economy in early 1990s under the then finance ministry Manmohan Singh, but has largely been relying on the service sector, particularly outsourcing, with the country being dubbed as back office of the world. In case of manufacturing, India was left way behind China following surge in Chinese exports in 1980s and 1990s.

However, off late, the government has been looking to boost manufacturing industry as well and is hoping to increase share of manufacturing in overall gross domestic product (GDP) to around 25% from currently 18%. This will compensate for declining share of agriculture and related activities in GDP and will therefore save from too much reliance on services sector. The commerce and industry ministry is expected to release a new manufacturing policy soon.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,805.80, higher by 18.15 points or 0.31%. The index has touched a high of 5,872.00 and a low of 5,788.75 respectively. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 2.99%, Hero Honda up by 2.40%, HUL up by 2.10%, ONGC up by 1.97% and ITC up by 1.86%.

Ambuja Cement down by 2.90%, JP Associates down by 2.44%, RCom down by 2.39%, Cipla down by 2.39% and SBI was down by 2.25%, were the major losers on the index.

Barring Shanghai Composite which fell 0.88% to 2,929.89, all other indices closed in the positive terrain. Hang Seng added 0.32% to 23,527.52, Jakarta Composite climbed 0.90% to 3,673.86, KLSE Composite advanced 0.88% to 1,545.13, Nikkei 225 rose 0.48% to 9,755.10, Straits Times gained 0.14% to 3,100.61, Seoul Composite moved up 0.73% to 2,106.70 and Taiwan Weighted increased 0.43% to 8,683.30.

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