Markets continue firm trade in afternoon session

Indian equities benchmarks continued their firm trade in afternoon session on the back of fresh spells of buying by foreign funds and investors amid positive global cues. Expectation of a recovery in profit margins of companies ahead of Q2FY15 earnings season and global cues encouraged the domestic benchmarks to extend gains and all major sectoral indices on BSE were trading in positive territory. Besides, appreciating rupee which strengthened to two-week high of around 61.09 against the dollar and easing global crude prices that have hit two-year low, buoyed sentiments. Further, the OECD’s announcement that India is anticipated to witness better growth momentum also added to the optimistic sentiments. Realty was the top gaining index on BSE as the Government has announced that its ambitious Smart City project will be primarily driven by private sector. Buying was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading up by over 1.20%. 

In scrip specific movement, Polaris Financial Technologies has dipped 15% to Rs 210 as the firm has fixed October 10, 2014 as the Record Date for the purpose of determining the list of shareholders who are entitled to receive the shares in Intellect Design Arena Limited, the resulting company after the demerger. On the other hand, 8K Miles Software Services has locked in upper circuit of 5% at Rs 571 after the company reported nearly three-fold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 4.15 crore for Q2FY15 on back of strong operational income.

On global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green with Taiwan Weighted up by 0.13% and Straits Times up by 0.79%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 7,900 and 26,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,521 stocks traded, 1,754 stocks advanced, while 685 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26518.76, up by 271.97 points or 1.04% after trading in a range of 26394.21 and 26571.66. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.25%, while Small cap index up by 1.30%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.60%, Capital Goods up by 1.51%, Bankex up by 1.44%, Power up by 1.26%, PSU up by 1.10%. There were no losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 5.07%, BHEL up by 4.33%, SBI up by 2.19%, Cipla up by 2.00% and ICICI Bank up by 1.89%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.97%, ITC down by 0.12% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its latest report has highlighted that India is anticipated to witness better growth momentum. The Composite leading indicators (CLIs), designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend, for India inched up to 99 in August from 98.8 in July, indicating that economic growth is gaining momentum.

After two years of slowdown, Indian economy is showing signs of revival and  expanded at its fastest pace in more than two years by 5.7% y-o-y during Q1FY15 as compared to 4.7% growth recorded in same quarter last year and 4.6% in Q4FY14.

On global front, the CLIs for the OECD area, a group of 33 major countries and 6 major non-member economies, continue to signal stable growth momentum. Further, the CLIs point to a mixed outlook across major economies, characterised by weakening growth in the Euro area and stable growth in most other major economies. Among other major economies, a stable growth momentum is also anticipated in Brazil, China and Russia.

For developed nations, the indicator points to a loss in growth momentum in Japan as CLIs declined to 99.6 in August from 99.8 in July. In Europe, signs of a loss of growth momentum in the Euro area are emerging, with stronger signals in the case of Germany and Italy, while in France and in the United Kingdom the outlook continues to point to stable growth.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7920.70, up by 78.00 points or 0.99% after trading in a range of 7886.50 and 7940.70. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 5.07%, BHEL up by 4.28%, PNB up by 2.53%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.31% and SBI up by 2.23%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.22%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.87%, NMDC down by 0.68%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 0.60% and BPCL down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green, Taiwan Weighted up by 11.26 points or 0.13% to 8,966.44, Straits Times up by 25.41 points or 0.79% to 3,252.12, Jakarta Composite up by 45.67 points or 0.92% to 5,004.19, Hang Seng up by 233.53 points or 1% to 23,496.86. While, Nikkei 225 down 102.44 points or 0.66% to 15,493.54 and Shanghai Composite down 1.17 points or 0.05% to 2,381.62.