Markets continue to trade in positive territory amid firm global cues

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in positive territory as fund and retail investors engaged themselves in sustained buying amid firm global cues. Besides, hopes of further reforms and encouraging earnings by some more blue chip companies and covering-up of short positions by speculators in view of tomorrow's monthly expiry in the derivatives segment also influenced the trading sentiments. Most of the sectoral indices were trading in green with Auto as top gaining index up by around 1.40%. Investors were also seen piling up positions in consumer durables, FMCG and oil and gas stocks. However, banking stocks were under pressure as global ratings agency S&P warned that gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of Indian banks are likely to rise to 4.5 per cent by the end of March 2015 from 4 per cent in the previous year. Though buying was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading up by over 0.50%.

SRF has rallied 9% to Rs 732 after reporting a strong 61% yoy jump in net profit at Rs 76.85 crore for Q2FY15 aided by better sales realisations. On the other hand, PI Industries has dipped 7% to Rs 412 after reporting 11.4% y-o-y decline in net profit at Rs 48.97 crore for Q2FY15, due to lower sales. The agrochemicals company had profit of Rs 55.29 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

On global front, Asian markets were trading in green with Nikkei 225 up by 1.4% and Hang Seng up by 1.24% amid optimism about US earnings and economic data ahead of a Federal Reserve policy announcement. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,000 and 27,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,553 stocks traded, 1,473 stocks advanced, while 997 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27022.15, up by 141.33 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 26971.16 and 27062.12. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.59%, while Small cap index up by 0.66%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.42%, Consumer Durables up by 1.04%, Oil & Gas up by 0.97%, FMCG up by 0.81% and IT up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Power down by 0.23% and Bankex down by 0.06% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.63%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.35%, Hindalco up by 1.49%, Tata Steel up by 1.44% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.32%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.15%, Sesa Sterlite down by 0.72%, GAIL India down by 0.71%, BHEL down by 0.47% and Sun Pharma Inds down by 0.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has placed India at 142 rank among 189 countries in its latest 'Ease of Doing Business' report, a drop by two places from the last year's ranking. The report assigned 53.97 points to India as compared to 52.78 points in the previous report. World Bank highlighted that drop in India's ranking from last year's 140 is mainly because other nations have performed much better. However, the latest ranking does not take into account the latest slew of measures taken by Modi Government to make India a business friendly destination.
  
World Bank cautioned against linking the latest ranking with the steps taken by the new Indian Government. It added that ease of doing business report considered data till May 2014 and the new Government did not come into office until the second half of May. The new government measures and initiatives will make impact on next year ease of doing business report.

World Bank stated that new government has made in clear that creation of a better investment climate and a more friendly business and environment in India will be its top priority. With the highly appreciative of the steps taken by the new Indian Government, there is high probability of India significantly jumping up the ladder in the next ease of doing business report.

On global front, the report highlighted that Singapore with 88.27 points occupies the top position in the ease of doing business followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark and South Korea. Among other countries, the US has been ranked at 7th place, Britain (8), China (90), Sri Lanka (99), Nepal (108), Maldives (116), Bhutan (125), and Pakistan (128).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8063.55, up by 35.95 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 8052.25 and 8081.05. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.68%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.09%, Cairn India up by 1.92%, Hindalco up by 1.73% and BPCL up by 1.53%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 1.37%, PNB down by 1.30%, NTPC down by 1.22%, Sesa Sterlite down by 0.98% and IDFC down by 0.96% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, Straits Times up by 9.7 points or 0.3% to 3,221.35, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 11.94 points or 0.65% to 1,837.62, Shanghai Composite up by 34.12 points or 1.46% to 2,371.99, KOSPI Index up by 35.49 points or 1.84% to 1,961.17, Jakarta Composite up by 42.98 points or 0.86% to 5,044.28, Taiwan Weighted up by 130.13 points or 1.48% to 8,903.68, Nikkei 225 up by 215.02 points or 1.4% to 15,544.93 and Hang Seng up by 291.13 points or 1.24% to 23,811.49.