Benchmarks trade higher in early deals on Thursday

Indian equity benchmarks are trading with modest gains in early deals on Thursday on the back of supportive global cues. Sentiments also remained up-beat on report that heavy showers have narrowed the monsoon deficit to 36 percent, accelerating crop planting. The weather office has forecasted more rains in the days ahead. Meanwhile, export oriented stocks remained on buyers’ radar, as Federation of Indian Exports Organisations (FIEO) has said that export momentum is likely to continue in the coming months on the back of higher demand helped by an uptick in global economies and measures announced in the Union Budget.

The US markets regained their momentum after a day of consolidation and moved up with the Dow reaching a new record high. Though, the economic news remained mixed but traders took cues from better than expected Chinese economic data and some upbeat earnings announcements. The Asian markets have made mostly in the red at this point of time despite a positive lead from Wall Street.

Beck home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables, metal and software witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while banking, auto and oil and gas remained the few losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in the green in morning deals, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1196 shares on the gaining side against 631 shares on the losing side while 61 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 25540.92; around 9 point lower compared to its previous closing of 25549.72, and has touched a high and a low of 25610.47 and 25520.61 respectively. The index is currently trading at 25578.13, up by 28.41 points or 0.11%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a positive start with 63.35% stocks advancing against 33.42% declines. The broader indices were trading in the green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.68% and 0.70% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.39%, Metal up by 1.37%, IT up by 1.01%, TECk up by 0.96% and Power up by 0.95%, while Bankex down by 0.47%, Auto down by 0.38% and Oil and Gas was down by 0.21% were the few losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SSLT up by 1.96%, Coal India up by 1.85%, Cipla up by 1.63%, Infosys up by 1.63% and Wipro up by 1.21%. On the flip side, M&M was down by 2.80%, ONGC was down by 1.35%, SBI was down by 1.07%, Axis Bank was down by 0.65% and Dr Reddys was down by 0.61% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to streamline the foreign investment regime, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has proposed to introduce a composite cap which will include FDI, FII and other instruments in various sectors including agriculture, tea, mining, broadcasting, media and banking among others. The DIPP, in its draft cabinet note, has noted that under the present structure, a change in the FII/FPI investments can lead to change in control and ownership of a company.

Seeking to bring clarity in overseas investments norms, the DIPP has stated that the proposal if accepted by Union Cabinet would help in improving ease of doing business in India. The move would help in removing ambiguity on application of sectoral caps, conditional ties and approval requirements in different sectors and bring simplification in the foreign investment policy.

Further, the proposal would also provide Indian firms and investors an option of category of investments between FDI, FPI (FII, Qualified Foreign Investors), NRI and Foreign Venture Capital Investor. FDI into the country increased by 8 percent to $24.29 in the FY14 form $22.42 billion recorded in the FY13.

The CNX Nifty opened at 7,612.70; about 12 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 7,624.40, and has touched a high and a low of 7,643.60 and 7,612.70 respectively. The index is currently trading at 7,632.10, up by 7.70 points or 0.10%. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Jindal Steel up by 2.50%, Coal India up by 1.82%, Infosys up by 1.72%, SSLT up by 1.67% and Lupin up by 1.41%. On the flip side, M&M down by 2.72%, IDFC down by 2.36%, ONGC down by 1.43%, SBI down by 1.13% and BPCL down by 1.00% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng dropped 55.33 points or 0.24% to 23,467.95, Straits Times slipped by 0.62 points or 0.02% to 3,303.81, Jakarta Composite declined 7.05 points or 0.14% to 5,106.88, Shanghai Composite tumbled by 16.69 points or 0.81% to 2,050.59, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 0.90 points or 0.05% to 1,885.81 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 96.05 points or 1.01% to 9,388.68.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 soared 15.10 points or 0.10% to 15,394.40 and KOSPI Index was up by 9.38 points or 0.47% to 2,022.86.