Benchmarks add gains; Nifty surpasses 7650 mark

Indian equity benchmarks added gains and continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters. The sentiments got a boost after President Pranab Mukherjee addressed a joint sitting of the Parliament to lay the roadmap of the new government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pranab Mukherjee unveiled new government’s economic reforms agenda, which included introducing a general sales tax, encouraging foreign investment and speeding approvals for major business projects. Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, Metal and Capital Goods, while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas sector stocks. Hectic activity was witnessed in railway stocks after President Pranab Mukherjee said that the government will launch a diamond quadrilateral project of high-speed trains. In scrip specific development, Gateway Distriparks was trading in green after ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund on Friday raised its stake by 0.92% in the company to 3.86% via block deal on the National Stock Exchange. Larsen and Toubro (L&T) was trading in green after touching record high after foreign brokerage house reiterated its overweight rating on the stock.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly 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 7,650 and 25,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 2189:792 while 79 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25603.39, up by 206.93 points or 0.81% after trading in a range of 25644.77 and 25496.84. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.   

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.47%, while Small cap index was up by 1.87%.   

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 5.32%, Metal up by 2.38%, Capital Goods up by 2.32%, India Infrastructure Index up by 2.30% and Power up 2.16%. On the flip side, Oil & Gas down by 0.87% was the only losing index on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 5.97%, Bajaj Auto up by 5.82%, L&T up by 3.47%, Tata Motors up by 2.75% and Tata Power up 2.71%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.87%, SBI down by 0.77%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.73%, Infosys down by 0.56% and NTPC down by 0.33% were the top losers.   

Meanwhile, concerned over the rising trade deficit with China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that India need to focus on imparting skills to its young population, expand the scale of projects it undertook and improve the speed of execution in order to compete with China. India’s trade deficit with China averaged at around $35 billion during the past three years. During January-April’ 2014, the total volume between China and India amounted to $ 21.98 billion out of which India exported $6.57 billion and imported $15.41 billion, representing a trade deficit of $8.84 billion.

Emphasizing the need to focus more on skill, scale and speed, Prime Minister has said that it has become imperative to take benefit of country’s favorable demography, as 65 percent of population was below 35 years of age. By adding further, Narendra Modi said that skill development such as teaching, nursing and paramedics need to be a priority area and good teachers are one of the biggest needs of society. Further, universities should be actively involved in research and analysis of the developmental process, to contribute significantly for policy-related decisions.

Narendra Modi cited the three colours of the national flag to express views on the development of key sectors for overall economic growth of the country. Beginning with green, Prime Minister said that India needs to bring about a second green revolution focusing on increased agro-productivity, agro technology, value addition and decentralization of warehousing. Further, a white revolution must focus on increasing milk productivity and developing a support system for ensuring cattle health. While, the saffron colour represents energy and India needs a saffron revolution which will focus on renewable energy sources such as solar energy to meet India's growing energy demand.  Prime Minister further added that in infrastructure the focus needs to shift from highways to i-ways and optical fibre networks.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7664.40, up by 81.00 points or 1.07% after trading in a range of 7669.75 and 7580.25. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.   

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim up by 12.47%, Power Grid up by 8.47%, Coal India up by 6.05%, Bajaj Auto up by 5.72% and ACC up by 5.35%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 3.15%, BPCL down by 2.19%, M&M down by 1.14%, SBI down by 1.00% and Infosys down 0.69% were the top losers.   

Asian equity indices were trading in green; Taiwan Weighted up by 0.31%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.03%, Hang Seng up by 0.73%, Straits Times up by 0.06% and Nikkei up by 0.31%. While, Jakarta Stock Index down by 1.11% was the only loser on the index.

The European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 added 0.30%, Germany’s DAX was up by 0.09% while, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.01%.