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. The sentiments also got some support on report that foreign funds were net buyers in Indian stocks to the tune of Rs 1,040 crore on October 20, 2014. Traders were seen piling positions in Infra, Power and Consumer Durables while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Jindal Steel and Power, Hindalco Industries, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power were trading in green on coal sector reforms by government. The government proposed an ordinance to allow e-auction of mines to private players while adding that state-run companies would be allocated mines directly. Financial Technologies was locked at lower circuit limit after the government issued draft order for merger of NSEL with company, saying the entire business of NSEL will be transferred to Financial Technologies.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets were trading on optimistic 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 positive in the ratio of 1441:1195 while 108 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26575.15, up by 145.30 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 26407.00 and 26615.41. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.75%, while Small cap index up by 0.27%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Infra up by 2.26%, Power up by 2.08%, Consumer Durables up by 1.89%, Realty up by 1.82%, Metal up by 1.63% while, Oil & Gas down by 0.66% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 5.01%, Sesa Sterlite up by 4.36%, BHEL up by 4.06%, Wipro up by 2.37% and ICICI Bank up by 2.36%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.40%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.34%, Coal India down by 1.30%, Infosys down by 0.81% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, an inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to work out a mechanism for allocating airwaves to successful bidders in a reasonable period, preferably within 90 days after receipt of payments from the bidders.

Inter-ministerial panel held a meeting and discussed the issue of spectrum allocations to successful bidders of the February auction. Telecom operators have not still received spectrum despite making payments in the first week of March.

Sectoral regulator TRAI also wrote to DoT on October 17 and asked reasons for this inordinate delay in the assignment of spectrum despite the clear provision in the NIA for the assignment of spectrum and after the payment has been made by the licencees. TRAI is of the view that telecom services in the national Capital may be disrupted partially from December due to delays by DoT in fresh spectrum allocations as current licences of leading operators Airtel and Vodafone having about 20 million mobile subscribers on their network in Delhi are about to expire by November-end.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7920.15, up by 40.75 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 7874.35 and 7934.50. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 5.31%, GAIL India up by 5.23%, Sesa Sterlite up by 4.40%, BHEL up by 4.19% and IDFC up by 3.15%. On the flip side, PNB down by 2.57%, ONGC down by 2.47%, Coal India down by 1.43%, Lupin down by 1.41% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.16% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 306.95 points or 2.03% to 14,804.28; Shanghai Composite decreased 17.07 points or 0.72% to 2,339.66; KOSPI Index decreased 14.78 points or 0.77% to 1,915.28; Jakarta Composite decreased 10.21 points or 0.2% to 5,030.32; Taiwan Weighted decreased 8.5 points or 0.1% to 8,654.64 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.38 points or 0.3% to 1,797.76.

On the other hand, Straits Times increased 11.04 points or 0.35% to 3,192.09 and Hang Seng increased 18.32 points or 0.08% to 23,088.58.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 20.9 points or 0.33% to 6,287.97; France’s CAC increased 26.06 points or 0.65% to 4,017.30 and Germany’s DAX increased 45.56 points or 0.52% to 8,763.32.