Markets make gap-up opening Nifty surpasses 7,600 mark

Extending their previous session jubilation, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Monday, tracking firm global cues. The US markets continued their up-move and ended higher on getting good jobs data on Friday, while the unemployment rate held steady, lower than expected. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green terrain at this point of time with some of the indices headed for a more-than seven-month high after Chinese trade and Japanese economic-growth data beat estimates.

Back home, sentiments remained up-beat on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1283.04 crore on Friday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Some comfort also came in from Minister of Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the rising Current Account Deficit (CAD) and galloping prices are the issues which will be tackled on an urgent basis by the government and Finance Minister will announce important measures to reduce the CAD and curb rising prices. Meanwhile, traders may continue to focus on stocks and sectors in the run-up to the Union Budget, which could benefit from possible pro-business measures.

Back home, on the sectoral front, realty, capital goods and power witnessed the maximum gains in trade, while oil and gas remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices to were trading with traction in early deals, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1683 shares on the gaining side against 419 shares on the losing side while 54 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 25543.60; about 147 points higher compared to its previous closing of 25396.46, and has touched a high and a low of 25604.33 and 25496.84 respectively. The index is currently trading at 25561.54, up by 165.08 points or 0.65%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 78.06% stocks advancing against 19.43% declines. Moreover, the broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 1.13% and 1.33% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.88%, Capital Goods up by 2.69%, Power up by 1.49%, Metal up by 1.42% and Infrastructure up by 1.40% while Oil and Gas down by 0.57% was the lone loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 3.75%, Tata Power up by 2.21%, Tata Steel up by 2.21%, Tata Motors up by 1.41% and HDFC Bank up by 1.30%. On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.98%, M&M was down by 1.60%, Sun Pharma was down by 0.53%, NTPC was down by 0.42% and Infosys was down by 0.36% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed overseas investors including FPIs and NRIs to invest up to 26 percent in insurance and allied activities through the automatic route. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) include all foreign institutional investors (FIIs), their sub-accounts and qualified foreign investors (QFI). However, overseas companies bringing in foreign investment, will have to obtain necessary licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) for undertaking prescribed activities.

Earlier, foreign investments under the automatic route were allowed only in insurance companies. Under the new norms FPIs and NRIs can invest up to 26 percent in insurance and allied activities such as broking, third party administrators and surveyors.

Over the past few years, the government has been liberalizing the foreign investment policy to attract maximum FDI into the country, which is crucial for economic development. The government has relaxed FDI norms in around 12 sectors, which include telecom, tea, pension and petroleum and natural gas among others. Despite government's various efforts to increase FDI, foreign investment during April-February FY14 has declined, which reflects the need to take more measures to improve the business environment in the country.

The CNX Nifty opened at 7,621.65; about 38 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 7,583.40, and has touched a high and a low of 7,535.10 and 7,506.85 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 7,639.80, up by 56.40 points or 0.74%. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Grasim up by 6.34%, ACC up by 4.94%, Ambuja up by 4.65%, Power Grid up by 3.90% and L&T up by 3.70%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.38%, M&M down by 1.76%, BPCL down by 1.11%, Sun Pharma down by 0.77% and Dr Reddys down by 0.68% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the green; Nikkei 225 gained 57.00 points or 0.38% to 15,134.24, Hang Seng strengthened by 163.33 points or 0.71% to 23,114.33, Straits Times climbed 2.27 points or 0.07% to 3,301.70, Shanghai Composite soared 7.73 points or 0.38% to 2,037.69.

On the flip side, KOSPI Index slipped 2.61 points or 0.13% to 1,992.87 and Jakarta Composite was down by 21.36 points or 0.43% to 4,915.81.