Benchmarks add gains; trade continues in green

Indian equity markets added gains and started trading in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Traders were seen piling positions in Metal, PSU and Realty while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, TECK and IT sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers (MCF) was locked at upper circuit limit after Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation increased its open-offer price to acquire additional stake in the firm. Deepak Fertilisers has offered to acquire up to 3.08 crore equity shares, or 26% stake, from the public shareholders of MCF at Rs 93.60 per shares, an upward revision in open offer price from Rs 63 offered earlier.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets traded mostly on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,900 and 26,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1163:1635 while 87 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26515.46, up by 47.10 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 26220.49 and 26578.55. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.11%, while Small cap index down by 0.27%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.98%, PSU up by 1.13%, Realty up by 0.99%, Capital Goods up by 0.76%, Bankex up by 0.55% while, Consumer Durables down by 1.33%, TECK down by 0.57%, IT down by 0.47%, FMCG down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 5.49%, Hindalco up by 4.18%, Tata Steel up by 2.76%, ONGC up by 2.21% and Axis Bank up by 2.17%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.41%, HDFC down by 2.40%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.19%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.83% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with almost half of the country’s thermal power stations left with coal inventory of less than seven days, the Coal Ministry has called a meeting to review the fuel position at the critical power stations.

Notably, the government had earlier this month underscored that coal supply was in comfortable position and dry-fuel based power production has increased by about 22% in the three months of Narendra Modi-led government.

However, Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted that coal shortage at power stations was due to stocks being consumed faster for higher electricity generation. He also unveiled that the government was making all efforts to augment the coal production and expediting the completion of three critical rail lines in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha which will potentially yield 60 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2017-18 and up to 200 MT by 2021-22. Reports suggest that state-owned Coal India will spend Rs 5,000 crore to purchase 250 rail rakes for faster evacuation of dry fuel from mines.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7919.30, up by 7.45 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 7841.80 and 7952.95. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 5.15%, Hindalco up by 4.53%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 3.26%, DLF up by 3.15% and Tata Steel up by 2.66%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 2.84%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.25%, HDFC down by 2.21%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.19% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.90% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 144.28 points or 0.88% to 16,229.86, Hang Seng decreased 89.72 points or 0.38% to 23,678.41, Jakarta Composite decreased 85.57 points or 1.65% to 5,115.81, Taiwan Weighted decreased 21.77 points or 0.24% to 8,989.82, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.6 points or 0.3% to 1,837.51, Straits Times decreased 4.21 points or 0.13% to 3,286.78 and KOSPI Index decreased 2.47 points or 0.12% to 2,031.64.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 2.62 points or 0.11% to 2,347.72.

The European markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 25.35 points or 0.27% to 9,484.66, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 18.82 points or 0.28% to 6,620.89 while, France’s CAC increased 2.64 points or 0.06% to 4,357.92.