Markets on way to touch fresh all time highs on expiry day

Indian markets are maintaining their momentum in the noon trade with benchmarks giving an indication of touching fresh all time highs on the October F&O series expiry day. Bourses though are witnessing minor volatility but the short covering is keeping the gains intact. The domestic markets have bucked the global trend with some of the Asian markets trading lower after the US Fed announced to end its asset-purchase program, judging the US economy strong. On the domestic front, while most of the sectors are extending their jubilation, the most cheerful is the realty stocks that have surged with government decision to relax rules for FDI in the construction sector by reducing minimum built-up area as well as capital requirement and easing the exit norms. The Cabinet decided to reduce the minimum floor area to 20,000 sq mt from the earlier 50,000 sq mt. It also brought down the minimum capital requirement to $ 5 million from $10 million. All the major housing stocks associated with affordable housing are surging high, Puravankara Projects was up by over 6%, NBCC was up by over 4%, Unitech and HDIL was up by over 3%. The broader markets too were maintaining their lead and were up by around half a percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27322.71, up by 224.54 points or 0.83%, after trading in a range of 27088.65 and 27326.15. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.36%, while Small cap index gained 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.69%, IT up by 2.57%, TECK up by 2.00%, Consumer Durables up by 1.61%, Oil & Gas up by 1.17%, while Power down by 0.17% was the losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.52%, Infosys up by 2.49%, Reliance Industries up by 2.02%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.33% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 0.94%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.82%, BHEL down by 0.63%, Sesa Sterlite down by 0.61% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World bank has ranked India at 7th for minority investor protection ahead of developed countries like the US, Japan, France and Germany. India has also been ranked best among the BRICS nations, out of which South Africa is placed at 17th, Brazil (35), Russia (100) and China (132). Major countries ranked below India include the US at 25th place, France (17), Korea and Italy (21), Japan (35), Germany (51), Australia (71) and Switzerland (78).

India’s ranking in terms of investor protection has showed a significant improvement from 21st position last year and World Bank attributed this improvement to various reforms launched in India over the past year. New company act as well as amendment in SEBI’s norms has brought a lot of norms to all listed companies in the country and to various market entities.

The World Bank’s report highlighted that India strengthened minority investor protections by requiring greater disclosure of conflicts of interest by board members, introducing additional safeguards for shareholders of privately held companies and increasing the remedies available in case of prejudicial related-party transactions.

Protection of minority investors is one of the ten sub- rankings based on which the World Bank has prepared the ease of doing business report. The World Bank has placed India at 142 rank among 189 countries in its 'Ease of Doing Business' report, a drop by two places from the last year's ranking.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8156.00, up by 65.55 points or 0.81%, after trading in a range of 8085.20 and 8158.90. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 4.30%, Tech Mahindra up by 4.23%, DLF up by 3.30%, TCS up by 2.52% and Infosys up by 2.49%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 1.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.03%, Tata Power down by 0.94%, BHEL down by 0.73% and Lupin down by 0.66% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were showing mixed trend, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 2.26 points or 0.12% to 1,841.81, Shanghai Composite increased 17.91 points or 0.75% to 2,390.94, Nikkei 225 was up by 104.29 points or 0.67% to 15,658.20.

On the other hand, Hang Seng declined by 142.45 points or 0.6% to 23,677.42, Jakarta Composite was lower by 31.42 points or 0.62% to 5,042.63, Taiwan Weighted lost 15.61 points or 0.18% to 8,888.07, KOSPI Index was down by 2.24 points or 0.11% to 1,958.93 and Straits Times decreased by 1.82 points or 0.06% to 3,222.21.