Benchmarks trade near day’s high; Nifty continues to trade below 8,150 mark

Going from strength to strength, local equity markets were trading near day’s high point, with both Sensex and Nifty trading short of the psychologically crucial of 27,200 (Sensex) and 8,150 (Nifty) respectively, with gains of over half a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices, outperforming larger peers were trading higher with gains in the range of 0.80%-1.60%. Solid gains of blue chip stocks on continued foreign buying, was mainly aiding the sentiment at Dalal Street, however mixed to negative global cues were limiting bourses’ gains.

On the global front, European shares fell in early trading on Monday, retreating after an opinion poll showed supporters of Scottish independence from Britain taking the lead for the first time since the referendum campaign began. Meanwhile, Asian pacific shares were set for mix close 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.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were holding their fort firmly in green, nevertheless much of the buying was witnessed by stocks from Oil & Gas, Infra and Metal counters. On the flip side, stocks from Consumer Durable counter were acting as the only spoil-sport among rest of the peers. Infrastructure stocks were in demand on renewed buying. L&T rose after the company's fully-owned subsidiary L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering secured orders worth Rs 1920 crore from domestic oil and gas majors. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1891:869; while 105 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27197.43, up by 170.73 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 27144.56 and 27248.79. 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 0.80%, while Small cap index up by 1.59%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.32%, INFRA up by 0.86%, Metal up by 0.83%, Capital Goods up by 0.83% and PSU up by 0.81% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.43% was the only loser on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.26%, Hindalco up by 1.91%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.41%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.13% and HDFC Bank up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.59%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.58%, Tata Motors down by 0.36% and Tata Power down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has asserted that the government and the RBI will formulate monetary framework this year for the central bank. The Governor added that sound monetary framework is likely to help take strong decisions towards an objective which has much more emphasis on inflation.

Rajan reiterated that central bank is aimed to bring down the headline number to 8% by end of this year and to 6% by the end of next year. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with an objective to generate long term economic growth by bringing down inflation over a reasonable period of time, has raised lending rate three times since September’13 in order to tame price rise through cooling demand.

On economic growth, Raghuram Rajan stated that Indian economy is witnessing recovery with the country's GDP growing to 5.7 percent in Q1FY15 up from about 4.6 percent a year ago. RBI expects 5.5% economic growth for the current fiscal. RBI’s Governor further said that India’s new government may take some time to unveil grand, big picture reforms as it is currently focusing on implementation of stalled projects worth $50-70 billion that will pay dividends in the short run by helping on the inflation and income fronts.

Governor further stressed that the RBI is also focusing on macro stabilization and country’s macro-economic indicators like current account deficit, fiscal deficit, and inflation are expected to improve further in future. If the global economic growth surge in future, it will help countries like India tremendously.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8137.45, up by 50.60 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 8126.15 and 8149.25. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 4.32%, Grasim Industries up by 3.01%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.68%, Hindalco up by 2.03% and ONGC up by 1.91%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corpn. down by 1.38%, NMDC down by 1.08%, United Spirits down by 0.93%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.78% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 0.09 points or 0% to 1,868.55; Jakarta Composite up by 31.67 points or 0.61% to 5,249.00 and Nikkei 225 up by 36.43 points or 0.23% to 15,705.11. On the flip side, Hang Seng down by 62.44 points or 0.25% to 25,177.71 and Straits Times down by 2.34 points or 0.07% to 3,339.39. Stock markets of China, South Korea and Taiwan remained shut for the trade today. 

European shares got off to a lower start; with; UK’s FTSE 100 were trading lower by 0.25% and France’s CAC were trading lower by 0.25, however, Germany’s DAX were trading up by 0.05%.