Markets extend gains; trade at intra-day high level

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains to continue firm trade in afternoon session, hovering near the intra-day high level on the back of buying witnessed in front line blue chip stock amid firm global cues. There was no sense of profit booking since morning with major indices fervently gaining from strength to strength amid strong buying. Investors are building high hopes with Narendra Modi taking oath as the 15th Prime Minister of India and piling up positions in fundamentally strong stocks. All sectoral indices were trading in green with capital goods was the top gaining index up by around 4.12%. Sentiments also got a boost after industry body FICCI survey has noted that 93 percent out of the 76 CEOs covered by it, project a substantial improvement in the near-term economic situation. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid and small cap indices were trading up by over 1.70%.

Shares of SKS Microfinance were trading up over 4% at Rs 283 after its Rs 400 crore qualified institutional placement (QIP) evoked a strong response and was oversubscribed several times. Shrenuj & Company has rallied around 15% to Rs 137 after the company said its board approved the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1. On the other hand, shares of Hindustan Motors were down around 10% at Rs 12 after the company announced suspension of work at its Uttarpara unit.

On global front, major Asian equity indices were trading in green with Straits Times up by 0.12% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.88% tracking gains from the Wall Street and a decisive win for billionaire Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine's presidential election. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,450 and 25,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,779 stocks traded, 1,961stocks advanced, while 700 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25,109.86 up by 416.51 points or 1.69% after trading in a range of 25,114.36 and 24,912.57. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.78%, while Small cap index up by 1.71%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 4.12%, Power up by 3.12%, Auto up by 2.90%, Metals up by 2.27% and Realty up by 1.92%. There was no losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 5.25%, M&M up by 4.83%, Coal India up by 4.54%, ONGC up by 4.06% and Maruti Suzuki up by 3.66%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.56%, Hero Motocorp down by 0.49%, Hindalco Inds down by 0.43% and Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 0.35%.

Meanwhile, The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways may seek greater autonomy in decision making from new government to speed up the implementation of high projects. Ministry is of the view that various inter- ministerial groups should be dissolved as they only delay project implementation.

Over the past few years, road sector is struggling with slowdown and the Road Ministry had blamed the issues like financial stress, land acquisition delays and environmental clearances and enhanced construction risk for the current downturn in the sector. During FY14, the Ministry has managed to award around 2,000 km of road projects as against the set target of 9,000 km, while in FY13 only 1,116 km of projects were awarded against a target of 9,500 km.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has planned to award around 5,000-km highway contracts in FY15. As per the NHAI work plan, about 2,300 km of highway projects with a total project cost of over Rs 15,000 crore will be awarded through cash contracts, or Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) mode and 3,000 km projects with cost of over Rs 35,000 crore to be bid via the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. So far, bidders’ response to PPP mode remained poor and NHAI would convert PPP to the EPC mode if no bids are received. Over the past few months, developers’ interest towards PPP mode projects has declined due to concerns over raising equity for highways PPPs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,487.95 up by 120.35 points or 1.64% after trading in a range of 7,488.65 and 7,428.55. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up by 5.20%, M&M up by 4.98%, Coal India up by 4.49%, ONGC up by 4.03% and Cairn up by 3.97%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.05%, Cipla down by 0.75%, Hero Motocorp down by 0.58%, Lupin down by 0.52% and Hindalco down by 0.43% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Straits Times up by 0.12% to 3,282.79, Nikkei 225 up by 0.88% to 14,589.90,Taiwan Weighted up by 0.31% to 9,036.12 and Shanghai Composite up by 0.14% to 2,037.31. While, Hang Seng down by 0.08% to 22,946.71 and Jakarta Index down by 0.21% to 4,962.66