Benchmarks add gains; Nifty surpasses 7350 mark

Indian equity benchmarks added gains to continue their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counter and taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments got additional boost after HSBC manufacturing PMI May data pointed to a slight improvement in operating condition as the production volumes at Indian manufacturers continued to rise, leading to further job creation across the sector. Traders were seen piling up positions in Capital Goods, Bankex and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in FMCG and HealthCare sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Coal India was trading in green after foreign brokerage firm downgraded the Government-controlled company to neutral from outperform. Larsen & Toubro was in demand after the company impressed the street with margins during January-March quarter. Most brokerages remain bullish on the stock and have raised their target price by revising EPS guidance upwards.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets too traded mostly on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,350 and 24,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1824:1007 while 102 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24639.38, up by 422.04 points or 1.74% after trading in a range of 24646.08 and 24270.20. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices continued to trade in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.85%, while Small cap index up by 1.58%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 4.59%, Bankex up by 2.79%, PSU up by 2.78%, Power up by 2.46% and Oil & Gas was up by 2.45% while, FMCG down by 0.90% and HealthCare down by 0.72% were the losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 5.70%, ONGC up by 3.74%, SBI up by 3.64%, HDFC up by 3.12% and ICICI Bank up by 2.91%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.32%, HUL down by 1.12%, Wipro down by 1.12%, ITC down by 0.97% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.90%.

Meanwhile, the new Government has outlined an ambitious Rs 25,000 crore plan to create a national waterway grid linking Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, Godavari and Ganga rivers. The eight-year project aims to ensure high water levels in rivers through the year by linking the Himalya Rivers with seasonal rivers, improving rivers role in crop irrigation and making them navigable.

Futher, the waterway grid will also help control floods as the excess water of rivers, which have strong seasonal flows, can be spread to other rivers. The proposed waterway grid will have road linkages to ports to facilitate faster movement of cargo. The transportation of goods through this network could save of about Rs 300 per tonne. The minister of roads and shipping has given an in-principle clearance to this eight-year project. Further, Inland Waterways Authority of the country has written to state governments to plan roads keeping in view waterways falling in their states.

Meanwhile, same move of inter-linking of rivers was also introduced by the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee during 2002. It had set up a task force to look into inter-linking of rivers and in the same year, the Supreme Court ordered the constitution of a committee to take the idea forward. However, the plan did not implement due to some concerns.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,353.00, up by 123.05 points or 1.70% after trading in a range of 7,355.40 and 7,239.50. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up by 6.15%, BPCL up by 5.00%, NMDC up by 4.00%, ONGC up by 3.87% and Jindal Steel up by 3.83%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 2.01% Sun Pharma down by 1.83%, Wipro down by 1.39%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.38% and HUL down by 1.38% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Straits Times up by 0.10%, Nikkei 225 spurted by 2.07% and Jakarta Index gained 0.19%. Taiwan, China and Hong Kong markets remained shut for the trade today for the Dragon Boat Festival.

The European markets were trading mostly in green while France’s CAC 40 was down by 0.12%; UK’s FTSE 100 added 0.27% and Germany’s DAX was up by 0.18%.