Benchmarks continue firm trade in late morning session

After getting a gap-up start, benchmark equity indices continued to trade in fine fettle in late morning deals on sustained buying activities by both funds and retail investors. Firm global cues coupled with the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar added to the optimistic sentiments. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 310.51 crore on September 05, 2014. Sentiment on the street also improved as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj statement that India is firmly committed to bring back growth and have clear policies, which will facilitate business environment, transparency and speed. Besides, Finance Ministry will take call on 35 foreign direct investment proposals, including that of Bharti Shipyard and Verizon Communications, later this month, too supported upside. However, some investors will be cautious with lots of important macro data slated to be announced later in the week and Supreme Court’s hearing on the coal block case on Tuesday. Also, there will be some cautiousness with RBI governor Raghuram Rajan saying that aggressive monetary policy by developed economies may hurt global growth by pushing emerging markets to pile up foreign-exchange reserves instead of spending.

Barring Consumer Durables, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, Oil & Gas and Metal indices were the star-performers, followed by Healthcare and FMCG. In scrip specific development, Shares of Punj Lloyd have surged over 9% after winning the mega Rs 3,515 crore Rapid tank farm order from PRPC refinery and Cracker, a subsidiary under the Petroleum National Berhad group, Malaysia’s national emergency group. Besides, shares of Cipla rose after the company announced that Medispray Laboratories, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company at its board meeting held on September 05, 2014 approved the acquisition of two manufacturing undertakings.

On global front, Asian stock markets were trading mixed in holiday-thinned trade Monday, with Tokyo edging higher despite more weak growth data and a pick-up in the yen that came in response to a below-forecast US jobs report. Back home, Indian rupee strengthened to a more than five-week high, tracking broad overnight losses in the dollar versus major currencies following the weaker-than-anticipated US jobs data. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2430 stocks traded, 1680 stocks advanced, while 669 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27229.57 up by 202.87 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 27248.79 and 27144.56. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.70%, while Small cap index gained 1.40%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.36%, Metal up by 1.10%, Healthcare up by 1%, FMCG up by 0.97% and Infrastructure up by 0.96% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.11% was the only loser on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.52%, Hindalco up by 2.15%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.52%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.42% and Sun Pharma Industries up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.67%, Tata Power down by 0.17%, Tata Motors down by 0.13% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.10% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, After emphasizing 20% increase in coal based power production in the last three months as an achievement, Power Minister Piyush Goyal, who has inherited crisis-ridden sector, is now planning to uplift the sector from doldrums by ensuring quick action after SC decision to get process rolling and enhancing coal output to 1 billion tonne by 2019.The Minister, further, highlighted that the government would continue to e-auction of coal to provide the fuel to the users even in case of de-allocation of coal blocks. He also unveiled that the Power Ministry plans to rework the financial restructuring package for debt ridden State Electricity Boards (SEBs).

Goyal elucidated that Coal shortage at power stations was due to stocks being consumed faster for higher electricity generation and threw some light on state run coal company’ s capacity enhancement plans.

He underscored that Coal India was planning to take steps to clear fuel supply bottlenecks, including augmenting output to 615 MT by FY'17, against the backdrop of the power sector reeling under fuel shortages.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8,140.45 up by 53.60 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 8,149.25 and 8,126.15. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.41%, ONGC up by 2.24%, Hindalco up by 2.06%, Grasim Industries up by 1.86% and Ambuja Cement up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.94%, United Spirits down by 0.79%, NMDC down by 0.73%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.55% and DLF down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.06%, Jakarta Stock Price was up by 0.61% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.01%. On the flip side, Hang Seng down by 0.29% and Straits Times down by 0.17%.