Benchmarks continues firm trade; Nifty holds 8250 mark

Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters and taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on optimistic note from early trade after a report by Moody’s titled ‘Recent policy changes to support growth acceleration’,  termed recent measures by the government coupled with those unveiled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the economic, fiscal and financial fronts as credit positive for the economy. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Capital Goods and Infra sector while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Adani Power was trading in green after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) allowed it to buy Lanco Infratech’s 1,200-MW imported coal-fired power plant at Udupi in Karnataka for more than Rs 6,000 crore. However, Titan Company was trading in red on cautious management commentary indicating weak consumer spending and poor festive demand.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,250 and 27,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1739:1089 while 123 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27740.82, up by 394.49 points or 1.44% after trading in a range of 27438.28 and 27762.13. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.11%, while Small cap index up by 0.94%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.20%, Capital Goods up by 2.05%, Infra up by 2.03%, Metal up by 1.97% and PSU up by 1.67% while, Consumer Durables down by 2.83% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 3.57%, Tata Steel up by 3.48%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.84%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.81% and Tata Power up by 2.32%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.61% was the sole loser.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has raised the limit for urban co-operative banks (UCBs) to sanction loan against gold collateral to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1 lakh at present under the bullet repayment scheme.

As per the bullet repayment scheme, the UCBs are allowed to sanction loan only on conditions that the period of loan shall not exceed 1 year from the date of sanction. Interest will become due for payment along with principal only at the end of 12 months from the date of sanction. Further, banks should maintain a Loan to Value (LTV) ratio of 75 per cent on the outstanding amount on an ongoing basis, failing which the loan will be treated as a Non Performing Asset.

The RBI’s notification further stated that UCBs should take necessary and usual safeguards and formulate suitable policy for lending against gold jewellery with the approval of their boards of directors.

In another announcement, Reserve Bank also directed urban co-operative banks to strictly adhere to the requirement of using their full name along with their logo or abridged name as a brand promotion exercise. Central bank noted that UCBs efforts towards brand building do not compromise with the rule of proper disclosure to the public. Earlier, a Standing Advisory Committee in 2006 had allowed UCBs to use logo or shorter names.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8283.80, up by 114.60 points or 1.40% after trading in a range of 8198.05 and 8291.65. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were IDFC up by 5.50% and Tata Steel up by 3.49% and HDFC up by 3.38% and Maruti Suzuki up by 3.04% and Larsen & Toubro up by 2.82%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.60%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.33%, ICICI Bank down by 0.13% and ACC down by 0.06% were the only losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.28 points or 0.07% to 1,844.06, KOSPI Index increased 5.5 points or 0.28% to 1,964.43, Jakarta Composite increased 7.55 points or 0.15% to 5,066.40, Shanghai Composite increased 29.1 points or 1.22% to 2,420.18, Straits Times increased 33.86 points or 1.05% to 3,268.17, Taiwan Weighted increased 86.69 points or 0.98% to 8,974.76, Hang Seng increased 296.02 points or 1.25% to 23,998.06 and Nikkei 225 increased 755.56 points or 4.83% to 16,413.76.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 47.3 points or 1.14% to 4,188.54, Germany’s DAX increased 124.07 points or 1.36% to 9,238.91 and UK’s FTSE 100 increased 50.86 points or 0.79% to 6,514.41.