Markets soar to day’s high on sustained buying activities; Sensex just shy of crucial 25950 level

Gradually adding ground, local barometer gauges have soared to day’s high point on sustained buying activities by funds and retail investors driven by encouraging first quarter earnings posted by blue-chip companies and positive global set-up. Additionally, sentiments also got a boost as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley exuded confidence that tax collection would exceed the set target during the current fiscal. Thus, trading at day’s high, Sensex and Nifty trading shy of the crucial 25,950 and 7750 levels respectively, with gains of over three fourth of a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices too were trading in line with benchmarks. On the global front, Asian stocks touched a three-year peak on Tuesday, despite lingering concerns about crises in Ukraine and Gaza. Additionally, European shares too receiving a positive handover from regional counterparts, got off to a green start.

Closer home, on the earnings front, Idea Cellular stocks rallied over 6% after telecom operator’s standalone net profit for the quarter rose by 58.89% at Rs 642.54 crore as compared to Rs 404.38 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013. Amidst broad-based buying, stocks from Oil & Gas, Infra and Realty counters were the flavor of the session. Meanwhile, all telecom stocks, namely, Bhart Airtel and Reliance Communication too were ringing loud after Telecom sector regulator TRAI has permitted spectrum sharing among telecom service providers across all six frequency bands, namely 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500MHz that have been identified for farm-out among telecom service providers. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1368:519; while 26 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25921.01, up by 205.84 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 25780.39 and 25953.86. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.54%, while Small cap index up by 0.69%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.54%, Infra up by 1.16%, Realty up by 1.13%, Metal up by 0.97%, TECK up by 0.88%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.44%, Reliance Industries up by 2.90%, Hindalco up by 2.23%, Tata Motors up by 1.73% and Coal India up by 1.72%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.38%, ICICI Bank down by 0.38%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.11%, Axis Bank down by 0.04% and Tata Steel down by 0.02% were the top losers.Meanwhile, India and China are likely to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in Railways during the forthcoming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2014. China had already sent an advance team for cooperation in the construction and overhaul of the existing railway system across India.

The 22-member high-powered Chinese delegation headed by deputy administrator of National Railway Administration Zheng Jian also held a first round of consultations with the top brass of Central Railway. During the meeting, the issues like raising speed of trains on existing routes, training of heavy haul transportation and station development under strategic economic dialogue were discussed. China has built up a whole national network of bullet trains which run at a speed of 300 km per hour. If the MoU is signed between both countries, China will provide competitive equipment and technology to India for developing the bullet train network in the country.

The government during budget 2014-15 has announced an ambitious plan to have a Diamond Quadrilateral Network of high-speed rail connecting major metros and growth centres, besides setting up world-class stations among others. The Rail Budget also proposed to increase the speed of existing trains in select sectors up to 200 km per hour. Indian Railways is an important sector for India and has the potential to raise India's economic growth by over one percent. Therefore, it has become imperative to modernise, strengthen and expand the Indian railway network

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7744.90, up by 60.70 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 7704.80 and 7748.95. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.77%, Reliance Industries up by 3.01%, Hindalco up by 2.20%, Asian Paints up by 2.16% and Tata Motors up by 1.77%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corpn down by 0.51%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.27%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.19%, ICICI Bank down by 0.18% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Asian markets continued to trade firmly into positive territory; with FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gaining by 0.48 points or 0.03% to 1,869.12; Straits Times inching higher by 1.86 points or 0.06% to 3,316.13; KOSPI Index advancing by 10.43 points or 0.52% to 2,028.93; Shanghai Composite surging by 20.51 points or 1% to 2,074.98; Taiwan Weighted accumulating 58.39 points or 0.62% to 9,499.36; Nikkei 225 rallying by 127.57 points or 0.84% to 15,343.28; Hang Seng spurting by 307.01 points or 1.31% to 23,694.15. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite down by 28.48 points or 0.56% to 5,098.64 was the only loser.

European Markets got off  to a positive start; with France’s CAC rising by 23.92 points or 0.56% to 4,328.66; UK’s FTSE 100 gaining by 27.76 points or 0.41% to 6,756.20 and  Germany’s DAX advancing by 61.51 points or 0.64% to 9,673.56.