Markets continue to trade in positive territory

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade in green in afternoon session on the back of blue chip frontline stocks such as GAIL, Bajaj Auto and SBI among others amid mixed Asian cues. Except healthcare, all major sectorial indices were trading in positive territory. Domestic sentiments remained firm on sustained foreign fund inflows and positive economic data. Besides, falling global crude oil prices also influenced the market sentiments. Furthermore, the OECD’s statement that Indian economy is likely to witness an average growth of 6.7 % over the 2015-19 period also aided to optimistic sentiments. Among major sectoral indices, Realty was top gaining index up by around 1.59%, while, healthcare remained only losing index on BSE. Buying was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by over 0.70%. Stock specific movement, Dynamatic Technologies has soared 9% to Rs 2393 after the company said it signs agreement with BELL Helicopter, a Textron Inc, company, as a single source supplier of major airframe assemblies for BELL 407 GX. Further, Simplex Infrastructures has surged 10% to Rs 303 after Reliance Capital bought one million shares of construction and engineering company from the open market.

On global front, Asian markets were trading mixed with Hang Seng up by 0.16% and Shanghai Composite down 0.41% as global investors remained concerned over slowing Chinese growth. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,300 and 28,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,655 stocks traded, 1,453 stocks advanced, while 1,104 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28005.37, up by 64.73 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 27912.90 and 28028.74. 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 0.74%, while Small cap index up by 0.73%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.53%, Metal up by 1.31%, PSU up by 1.14%, Oil & Gas up by 1.07% and Auto up by 0.89%. On the flip side, Healthcare down by 0.61%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.51%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.81%, SBI up by 1.70%, Coal India up by 1.60% and Wipro up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 2.48%, Cipla down by 1.75%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.46%, Sun Pharma Inds down by 1.31% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s gold demand during July-September quarter this year shot up 39 percent to 225.1 tonnes against 161.6 tonnes in third quarter of 2013 mainly driven by strong buying from the jewellery sector, as per the World Gold Council (WGC) report. The WGC also attributed the sudden increase in country’s gold demand to unusual low base of third quarter of 2013 that was impacted by the introduction of a range of duty increases and restrictions.

The report further highlighted that the total jewellery demand was up by 60 per cent at 182.9 tonnes during third quarter of current year against 114.5 tonnes in the same period last year. On global front, the WGC report highlighted that global gold demand fell by 2 percent to five year low at 929 tonnes in the third quarter.  China, which was top gold consumer in last year,  saw a 39 percent drop in jewellery consumption as well as a 30 per cent fall in bar and coin investment. India once again took over as the world's biggest gold consumer, buying 225.1 tonnes of gold jewellery, coins and bars last quarter, compared to 182.7 tonnes in China.

Gold imports in India surged nearly 450 percent in September and around 175 per cent in August, despite a strict norms like 80/20 rule and high custom duty at 10 percent. The RBI recent move to partly relax the gold norms by permitting nine premium and star trading companies to import gold can also attributed to increase in gold imports. Concerned over the sudden spike in domestic gold imports, Finance Ministry and RBI are likely to meet soon to review gold import curbs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8377.00, up by 19.15 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 8346.80 and 8382.25. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 2.81%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.75%, SBI up by 1.72%, Coal India up by 1.64% and PNB up by 1.58%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 2.54%, Cipla down by 1.58%, Grasim Industries down by 1.52%, Sun Pharma Inds down by 1.51% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Straits Times up by 6.95 points or 0.21% to 3,311.88, Nikkei 225 up by 31.06 points or 0.18% to 17,423.85 and Hang Seng up by 38.56 points or 0.16% to 24,058.50. While, KOSPI Index down 19.39 points or 0.99% to 1,941.12, Shanghai Composite down 10.13 points or 0.41% to 2,475.48, Taiwan Weighted down 6.35 points or 0.07% to 8,974.32, Jakarta Composite down 4.73 points or 0.09% to 5,043.94 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down 3.34 points or 0.18% to 1,812.47