Benchmarks extend gains; trade near intra-day high level

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains to continue firm trade in late morning session, hovering near intra-day high level on sustained foreign capital inflows and persistent buying by retail investors, driven by encouraging first quarter earnings posted by blue-chip companies and positive economic factors, including progress in Monsoon. Besides, a firming trend on other Asian markets following signs of easing geopolitical tension in Ukraine also boosted investor sentiments. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 25,700 and 7,700 levels respectively, with gains of over 0.60%.  Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by over 0.65%.

Meanwhile, none of the sectoral indices were trading in the red, while India Infrastructure Index and Oil & Gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade. Realty, Healthcare, Metal and Consumer Durables too were trading significantly. Shares of telecom services providers such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications (RCom) were trading higher by up to 5% after the telecom regulator authority of India (TRAI) recommended allowing sharing of all categories of airwaves held by operators. In scrip specific development, Shares of Idea Cellular, India's third-biggest mobile phone operator by users and revenue, surged nearly 4% after its first-quarter profit rose 57% to Rs 728 crore, beating consensus estimates. Furthermore, Exide Industries rose over 6% after reporting better-than- expected results for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

On global front, Asian stock markets edged up in early trading, though the upside was capped by lingering concerns about the Ukraine crisis and violence in Gaza which pressured US yields and the dollar. Back home, the Indian rupee opened marginally higher at 60.25 per dollar compared with close of Rs 60.30 on July 21, 2014.  Meanwhile, the market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2212 stocks traded, 1427 stocks advanced, while 1427 stocks declined on the BSE.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25872.95 up by 157.78 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 25895.91 and 25780.39. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.66%, while Small cap index gained 0.82%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Infrastructure up by 1.25%, Oil & Gas up by 1.04%, Realty up by 1.02%, Healthcare up by 0.97% and Metal up by 0.98%, while there was no loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 4.63%, Hindalco up by 1.99%, RIL up by 1.73%, Coal India up by 1.65% and Sun Pharma up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Gail India was down by 0.32%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.13% and Wipro was down by 0.11% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, In a move that would enhance the efficiency of the coveted airwaves and also boost the quality of service offered to customers, Telecom sector regulator TRAI has permitted spectrum sharing among telecom service providers across all six frequency bands, namely 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz that have been identified for farm-out among telecom service providers. Until now, telecom operators were allowed to share passive infrastructure such as mobile towers and have been demanding allowing of spectrum sharing for a long time.

According to the regulator, spectrum sharing would be limited to two licensees within the same circle and no permission would be required from the government for the sharing arrangement that will allow two telecom providers to pool their respective spectrum for simultaneous use in order to boost spectral efficiency.

Further, the new guidelines on spectrum sharing, have allowed only spectrum sharing arrangement to a small area within a circle that has high-density traffic, like Connaught Place in Delhi or Dalhousie Square in Calcutta. Besides, it bars sharing of spectrum between telecom players who do not hold spectrum in the same band. Thus, for instance, it will not allow a sharing arrangement if one player holds spectrum only in the 900 MHz band and the other has it in the 2,300 MHz band.

As per the guidelines, post-spectrum sharing, SUC (spectrum usage charges) will increase by 0.5% for both the licensees. The guidelines also suggest a non-refundable processing fee of Rs 50,000 per operator for each service area in which they opt for spectrum sharing.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,731.45 up by 47.25 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 7,735.35 and 7,704.80. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 4.72%, Hindalco up by 2.09%, RIL up by 1.84%, Coal India up by 1.80% and Lupin up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Kotak Bank down by 0.34%, HCL Tech down by 0.25%, M&M down by 0.23%, UltraTech Cement down by 0.23% and Wipro down by 0.13% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Nikkei 225 spurted by 0.89%, Hang Seng gained 1.20%, KOSPI Index increased by 0.34%, Straits Times strengthened 0.03%, Shanghai Composite soared 1.27%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI improved 0.05% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.40%. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.46%