Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Coming out from consolidation mood, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Monday on the back of firm global cues. Meanwhile, appreciation in Indian rupee against dollar too aided the sentiments. The rupee strengthened to a more than five-week high on Monday, tracking broad overnight losses in the dollar versus major currencies following the weaker-than-anticipated US jobs data. Rally in public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) too supported the sentiments. Shares of HPCL, BPCL and IOC edged higher as crude oil prices dropped on Friday. Crude oil futures dropped on Friday after downbeat US jobs data fuelled demand concerns and a ceasefire in Ukraine cooled geopolitical tensions.

The US markets ended higher in last session as the lower than estimated jobs data fueled bets that Federal Reserve won’t rush to raise interest rates. The Asian markets were trading mixed at this point of time, though most are closed today, Chinese trade surplus climbed to a record as exports rose in August, while the Japanese market was slightly higher, despite the dollar's fall and poor growth data.

Back home, on the sectoral front, oil and gas, FMCG and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while consumer durables remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1493 shares on the gaining side against 575 shares on the losing side while 86 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 27145.12; around 119 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 27026.70, and has touched a high and a low of 27248.79 and 27144.56 respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27221.65, up by 194.95 points or 0.72%. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The overall market breadth remained in the favour of advances with 69.31% stocks advancing against 26.69% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.54%, while Small cap index up by 1.21%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.27%, FMCG up by 1.08%, Capital Goods up by 0.84%, PSU up by 0.80% and Metal up by 0.70% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.20% was the lone losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.34%, Hindalco up by 1.67%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.41%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.31% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.96%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.62%, BHEL down by 0.38% and Tata Power down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a move to avoid any shutdown of coal based power plants in the country, Coal India (CIL) has asked its subsidiaries to rush additional stocks to feed the power utilities reeling under acute fuel crunch. Coal is dominant fuel used for power production in the country and acute coal shortage in the country has become primary reason for power deficit in the country as coal-fired plants account for around 59% of India's total installed electricity capacity. 

As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA), 29 out of 100 thermal power plants across the country as on September 1 have been left with coal stock of less than four days. Coal India has about over 30 million tonnes (MT) of stocks lying at different places and is using rail transport mode to supply coal to power companies on priority basis. Coal India has also urged the power units to use trucks to transport coal from remote mines.

Meanwhile, the government is also taking measures to enhance the domestic coal production and has recently asked coal India to prepare an action plan soon to liquidate 39 MT of stock. Coal India (CIL), the only producer of coal in the country, is struggling to meet domestic coal requirements amid concerns like shutdown of mining activities in Talcher Coalfields in Odisha. CIL production fell 4.21 percent short of its production target to 462.53 MT in FY14. The government has set coal production target at 507 MT for CIL for FY15.

The CNX Nifty opened at 8,132.95; around 46 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 8,086.85, and has touched a high and a low of 8147.50 and 8,126.15 respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8141.00, up by 54.15 points or 0.67%. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.13%, Asian Paints up by 1.90%, Hindalco up by 1.64%, Cairn India up by 1.57%, Grasim Industries up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.45%, Tata Power down by 0.45%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.44%, BHEL down by 0.31% and DLF down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.06%, Jakarta Stock Price was up by 0.66% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.03%. On the flip side, Hang Seng down by 0.31% and Straits Times down by 0.15%.