Markets hold the gain; food inflation declines to 7.78% for the week

The Indian equity markets are trading near its day's low though with marginal gains in the late morning session due to resistance at higher levels and some profit taking. Meanwhile, food articles inflation after surging over 9% mark has came down at 7.78% for the week-ended June 18 versus 9.13% in the previous week and the primary articles inflation come in at 11.84% versus 12.62%, while fuel group inflation surged to 12.98% versus 12.84%. Back on street, on sectoral front consumer durables, FMCG, realty banking and metal companies' shares were supporting the market to hold in the positive terrain but healthcare, power and technology shares were under pressure, limiting the upside. Fertilizer companies were trading higher ahead of government meeting to consider giving fertilizer companies freedom to fix the maximum retail price of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP). On the global front, Asian markets continue to trade higher after Greek Parliament approved austerity package for the country to avoid debt default. Back home, market breadth continues to remain in positive with; there were 1,326 shares on the gaining side against 1,145 shares on the losing side while 122 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,751.05, up by 57.19 points or 0.31%. The index has touched a high and low of 18,823.06 and 18,723.72 respectively. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices are also trading in positive with marginal gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.18% and 0.30% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were CD up by 1.99%, FMCG up by 0.84%, Realty up by 0.49%, Bankex up by 0.43% and Metal up by 0.34%, while HC down by 0.30%, Power down by 0.23%, TECk down by 0.23% and Auto down by 0.09% were the top losers.

The top gainer on the Sensex were Jaiprakash Associate up by 3.40%, HUL up by 1.79%, Hero Honda up by 1.22%, Jindal Steel up by 1.12% and Reliance Infra up by 1.02%.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel down by 2.52%, Cipla down by 1.93%, ONGC down by 1.20%, Tata Motors down by 1.13% and BHEL down by 0.45% were the major losers on the Sensex.

The government's proposal to increase the limit of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in insurance sector from existing 26 to 49% is not likely to happen as the parliament's standing committee on finance, headed by Yashwant Sinha  has delayed the decision on adopting a vital report on amending India's insurance norms. The parliamentary panel had scheduled a meeting tomorrow to adopt its report on the Bill, among other things.    

The Insurance Act amendment bill was one of the eight items listed in the 2011-12 budget speech, where Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had promised that the issue would be solved before the budgetary year was out. However, the draft report of the panel has questioned the rationale for increasing the FDI cap in insurance from 26 to 49%.

The parliament's standing committee on finance has made draft report of 250 pages which conclusively and effectively rejects the proposal for increasing the FDI limits in the Insurance sector. The standing committee's draft report has said the government has failed to successfully tap domestic finance to cater to the insurance sector. The government is not sure, the draft added, how much investment the insurance sector needs as two different figures on requirement of the sector were being quoted by two top officials.

However, in the support of the finance ministry's proposal of hiking the FDI limits, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, 'We want to increase FDI in insurance to 49% and hope we can persuade opposition to pass the bill. The industry needs that capital as domestic industrialists don't have that large capital base.'   

The standing committee's report could be a major stumbling block for FDI in insurance sector, as the committee is not likely to accept the proposal. It is expected that the parliament's standing committee would not support the proposal of increasing the FDI limits in the insurance sector, therefore FDI in insurance sector is not likely to happen in near future.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,612.65, up by 12.20 points or 0.22%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,637.45 and 5,606.55 respectively. There were 28 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up by 3.47%, SAIL up by 2.27%, HUL up by 1.71%, Jindal Steel up by 1.29% and SBI up by 1.09%.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel down by 2.60%, Cipla down by 1.97%, Sesa Goa down by 1.66%, ONGC down by 1.52% and BPCL down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green. Shanghai Composite was up by 1.09, Hang Seng was up by 1.58%, Jakarta Composite was up by 1.25%, Nikkei 225 was up 0.29%, Straits Times up by 1.20%, Seoul Composite was up 0.30% and Taiwan Weighted was up 0.92%. On the flip side, KLSE Composite was down by 0.04% was the lone loser among the Asian pack.

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