Markets continue firm trade in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains and were trading near intra-day high levels in afternoon session on the back of buying witnessed in frontline blue chip stocks amid firm global cues. There was not a single instance profit booking since morning with benchmarks fervently gaining from strength to strength. Sentiments got a boost as the government issued new austerity measures including 10 per cent cut in non-Plan expenditure to trim the fiscal deficit to 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in FY15. Furthermore, continued buying by foreign funds as well as retail investors, triggered by a series of economic reforms undertaken by new government and strong earnings by blue-chip companies encouraged the domestic benchmarks to extend gains. Almost all sectoral indices were trading in green with capital goods as the top gaining index followed by PSU and metal indices both trading up by over 1.70%. IT stocks were trading up by over 1% as US Federal Reserve expressed optimism about US economic recovery. Buying was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading up by over 1.00%. However, the stocks of consumer durables sector were under pressure.

Shares of Thermax have surged over 4% to Rs 917 after the Energy and environment major secured Rs 321 crore worth order to build and commission a captive power plant in Africa. On the other hand, Titan Company has dipped 5% to Rs 398 after reporting a lower than expected performance with a  29% y-o-y jump in net profit at Rs 240 crore for Q2FY15 on the account of sharp increase in jewellery sales.

On global front, Asian markets were trading in green with Shanghai Composite up by 0.67% and Straits Times up by 0.76%. Japanese stocks were trading higher and the yen skidded to six-year lows against the dollar on Friday as the Bank of Japan surprised markets with fresh easing steps, a move aimed at stoking inflation and recharging a fragile economic recovery. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,200 and 27,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,562 stocks traded, 1,694 stocks advanced, while 784 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27697.39, up by 351.06 points or 1.28% after trading in a range of 27438.28 and 27717.52. 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 1.31%, while Small cap index up by 1.17%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.86%, PSU up by 1.71%, Metal up by 1.70%, Realty up by 1.66%, Oil & Gas up by 1.65%. On the other hand, Consumer Durables down by 2.70% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 2.98%, Tata Steel up by 2.73%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.52%, ONGC up by 2.34% and Larsen & Toubro up by 2.29%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.29%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.59% and ICICI Bank down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a bid to enhance the thriftiness of the people, the government has asserted that it is committed to improve the savings rate and has planned to launch new products to achieve the objective.

Joint Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Rajat Bhargava, has asserted that, two new products will be launched soon by the government which will be of tremendous significance in increasing the savings rate and giving more choices to small savers. Higher saving plays an important role to boost the economic growth as more money is deposited into the banks and thus allocated to finance the infrastructure projects.

To bring unbanked sections of the society into the formal financial sector and promote the savings of people, the government launched ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana’ to help the poor open bank accounts. Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, the person opening the bank account will get a debit card and the family will get Rs 1 lakh insurance cover.

The PMJDY has set an ambitious target of bringing in more than 7.5 crore un-banked families into India's banking system by opening more than 15 crore bank accounts. If the account remains active for 6 months the account holder will become eligible for an overdraft facility of up to Rs 2,500. This will further be enhanced by the bank to Rs 5000 over time.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8277.15, up by 107.95 points or 1.32% after trading in a range of 8198.05 and 8277.90. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were IDFC up by 4.25%, Tata Steel up by 2.85%, HDFC up by 2.75%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.59% and BPCL up by 2.56%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.44%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.68%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.62% and ICICI Bank down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 0.81 points or 0.04% to 1,843.59, KOSPI Index up by 5.5 points or 0.28% to 1,964.43, Jakarta Composite up by 9.22 points or 0.18% to 5,068.07, Shanghai Composite up by 15.91 points or 0.67% to 2,406.98, Straits Times up by 24.69 points or 0.76% to 3,259.00, Taiwan Weighted up by 86.69 points or 0.98% to 8,974.76, Hang Seng up by 282.8 points or 1.19% to 23,984.84 and Nikkei 225 up by 815.19 points or 5.21% to 16,473.39.