Benchmarks trade at fresh highs; Nifty surpasses 8,200 mark

Extending their northward journey to fourth straight day, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading with a gain of over three fourth of a percent on the back of positive global cues. Both the frontline gauges were trading at their all time high levels with Sensex and Nifty surpassing 27,500 and 8,200 respectively. Some support also came in after government announced austerity drive. The Finance Ministry in wake of lower revenue realisation till date, has issued new austerity measures, including 10 per cent cut in non-Plan expenditure and ban on creation of new posts. Also, the government has said that it is committed to improving the savings rate and plans to launch new products to achieve the objective.

On the global front, the US markets ended higher in last session after getting upbeat economic data. Though US GDP increased by 3.5 percent in the third quarter compared to the 4.6 percent growth seen in the second quarter, but was much better than expected. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time tailing good cues from the US markets. Japanese market was in most jubilant mood on report that Japan’s $1.2 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund will increase holdings of equities.

Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. None of the sectoral indices, barring consumer durables, were trading in the red, while software and oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade. Infrastructure, public sector undertaking, technology, capital goods, metal and healthcare too were trading significantly. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1381 shares on the gaining side against 482 shares on the losing side while 62 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 27439.06; around 93 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 27346.33, and has touched a high and a low of 27584.11 and 27438.28 respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27562.16, up by 215.83 points or 0.79%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The overall market breadth remained in the favour of advances with 71.74% stocks advancing against 25.04% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.03%, while Small cap index up by 0.94%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.32%, Oil & Gas up by 1.29%, Infrastructure up by 1.04%, PSU up by 1.04%, and TECK up by 1.03%, while Consumer Durables down by 2.93% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.60%, Infosys up by 1.47%, ONGC up by 1.47%, HDFC up by 1.45% and Tata Steel up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.98%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.68%, Hindalco down by 0.31% and ICICI Bank down by 0.13% 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 opened at 8,200.80; around 31 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 8,169.20, and has touched a high and a low of 8,241.50 and 8,198.05 respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8237.15, up by 67.95 points or 0.83%. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were IDFC up by 3.34%, HCL Tech up by 2.08%, BPCL up by 1.89% and Infosys up by 1.66% and Tata Power up by 1.65%. On the flip side, DLF down by 1.25%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.02%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.72%, Hindalco down by 0.37% and ICICI Bank down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in the green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.81 points or 0.04% to 1,843.59, KOSPI Index increased 4.72 points or 0.24% to 1,963.65, Taiwan Weighted increased 9.21 points or 0.1% to 8,897.28, Jakarta Composite increased 9.22 points or 0.18% to 5,068.07, Straits Times increased 17.41 points or 0.54% to 3,251.72, Shanghai Composite increased 21.47 points or 0.9% to 2,412.55, Hang Seng increased 214.5 points or 0.9% to 23,916.54 and Nikkei 225 increased 243.68 points or 1.56% to 15,901.88.