Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals on Wednesday

Extending their winning streak to fifth straight day, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Wednesday following the positive cues from the regional peers. The Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time, led by Japanese markets as the yen slid to an almost eight-month low. Though, the US markets made a mixed closing coming after a long weekend. Though, the bourses largely held on to the bulk of their recent gains but trade remained lackluster, showing a lack of direction throughout the trading session, despite the report that activity in the US manufacturing sector unexpectedly grew in August.

Back home, sentiments remained upbeat with current account deficit narrowing sharply to 1.7 per cent of GDP in the Apr-June quarter of 2014-15 compared to 4.8 per cent of GDP in the same quarter of 2013-14. Rally in coal and power stocks too supported the sentiments, amid controversy of SC declaring the allocation of 218 coal blocks as ‘illegal and arbitrary’. The union environment ministry has eased the clearance process to increase production for coal mines with 20 million tonnes per annum capacity.

On the sectoral front, technology, software and consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while consumer durables remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1258 shares on the gaining side against 785 shares on the losing side while 81 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 27128.06; around 109 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 27019.39, and has touched a high and a low of 27148.90 and 27067.02 respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27103.78, up by 84.39 points or 0.31%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The overall market breadth remained in the favour of advances with 59.23% stocks advancing against 36.96% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.50%, while Small cap index up by 0.41%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 1.51%, IT up by 1.40%, Consumer Durables up by 1.38%, Realty up by 0.99% and Metal up by 0.96% while, Bankex down by 0.20% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.38%, Tata Steel up by 1.79%, Infosys up by 1.79%, TCS up by 1.61% and Tata Motors up by 1.47%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.67%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.77%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.64%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.61% and ONGC down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, influencing Japanese investors towards Indian economic growth prospect, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that the government determined to push tax and financial sector reforms in order to improve business environment in the country.

During his ongoing visit to Japan, Prime Minister interacted with the Japan’s corporate leaders and influenced them to invest in India. Narendra Modi invited Japanese businesses to join India's developmental efforts with a promise of non-discriminatory and speedy clearances and also announced setting up of a Special Management Team under PMO to facilitate business from Japan.

After two years of sluggish growth, Indian economy has shown sign of recovery and grew by 5.7% during Q1FY15 as compared to 4.7% growth recorded in Q1FY14. Investments seem to have rebounded with investment activity rising at solid pace and reassured consumers have begun to spend again, indicating the worst slowdown in the last decade may finally be over. The government is also taking various measures to boost economic growth. It has relaxed norms for foreign direct investment in key sectors like defence and railways.

Further, Indian government has also announced that it will soon implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) which will replace existing state and federal levies and will integrate State economies and boost overall growth.

The CNX Nifty opened at 8,110.85; around 27 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 8,083.05, and has touched a high and a low of 8,121.65 and 8,092.25 respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8,098.45, up by 15.40 points or 0.19%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.32%, Tata Steel up by 1.88%, TCS up by 1.77%, Infosys up by 1.72% and Tata Motors up by 1.48%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.03%, Grasim Industries down by 1.19%, United Spirits down by 1.17%, BHEL down by 0.79% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.67% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; Jakarta Composite increased by 18.19 points or 0.35% to 5,219.77, Nikkei 225 rose by 192.00 points or 1.24% to 15,668.60, Taiwan Weighted improved by 33.91 points or 0.36% to 9,433.63, Straits Times was gained 7.28 points or 0.22% to 3,335.58 and  Shanghai Composite was up by 30.54 points or 1.37% to 2,266.05.

On the flip side, KOSPI Index dropped by 0.34 points or 0.02% to 2,051.24,  FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined by 7.55 points or 0.40% to 1,860.14 and Hang Seng was down by 3.07 points or 0.01% to 24,749.02.