Benchmarks trade at record highs in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks are trading jubilantly with frontline gauges surpassing their crucial 28,200 (Sensex) and 8,450 (Nifty) levels in early deals on Friday on account of strong buying in rate sensitive sectors like banks, auto, realty and select metal shares. Sentiments also remained buoyed on fresh capital inflows led by a series of economic reforms announced recently by the government.

On the global front, US markets ended at record high levels on fall in jobless claims, factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region growing at its fastest pace in two decades and U.S. home re-sales jumping to their highest in more than a year in October. Asian equity markets too were trading mostly in the green at this point of time. However, Japanese shares trading under pressure on profit-booking ahead of a long weekend shrugging off the boost provided by US markets. Nikkei is trading with a loss of 0.8% on course to snap a run of four weeks of gains.

Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables, banking and realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1333 shares on the gaining side against 663 shares on the losing side while 65 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 28100.10; around 33 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 28067.56, and has touched a high and a low of 28254.85 and 28038.40 respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28238.66, up by 171.10 points or 0.61%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The overall market breadth remained in the favour of advances with 64.68% stocks advancing against 32.17% declines. The broader indices were trading in the green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.80%, while Small cap index up by 0.64%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.59%, Bankex up by 1.53%, Realty up by 1.34%, Auto up by 1.07% and PSU up by 0.95% while, IT down by 0.81%, TECK down by 0.47% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 3.09%, Tata Motors up by 2.54%, SBI up by 2.17%, Axis Bank up by 1.93% and GAIL India up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.67%, Sun Pharma down by 0.45%, TCS down by 0.20%, Tata Power down by 0.17% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, global ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has revised 2015 outlook for Indian non-financial corporates to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’, driven by economic recovery and political stability. The outlook reflects Moody's expectation for fundamental business conditions in the sector over the next 12 to 18 months.

The revised outlook reflects the global rating agency’s review on economic recovery, enhanced access to the global markets and successful implementation of pro-market policies that would lead to improved corporate cash flows and be broadly supportive of business growth.

According to the agency, improved external vulnerability should also reduce foreign exchange risk for Indian corporates, despite gradual interest rate normalization by the US Federal Reserve.

Further, Moody’s expects India’s growth to be at 5.6% for the fiscal year ended March, 2015, led by acceleration in manufacturing activity. This development comes on the heels of the Paris-based think-tank pegging India’s growth rate, which languished below 5% for the last two fiscals due to high interest rates, stubborn inflation and weak investment, to grow by 6.6% in 2015-16, up from its last forecast of 5.7% growth in May and to edge higher to 6.8% in 2016-17.

The CNX Nifty opened at 8,408.20; around 7 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 8,401.90, and has touched a high and a low of 8,461.65 and 8,398.60 respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8452.70, up by 50.80 points or 0.60%. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 5.61%, Cipla up by 3.08%, Tata Motors up by 2.51%, Axis Bank up by 2.00% and SBI up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.79%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.04%, Asian Paints down by 0.52%, HCL Tech. down by 0.51% and Sun Pharma down by 0.35% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; KOSPI Index rose 7.29 points or 0.37% to 1,965.33, Shanghai Composite increased 14.01 points or 0.57% to 2,466.67, Taiwan Weighted gained 14.62 points or 0.16% to 9,093.49, Straits Times surged 22.81 points or 0.69% to 3,338.41 and Hang Seng was up by 25.42 points or 0.11% to 23,375.06.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 declined 108.94 points or 0.63% to 17,191.92, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 9.76 points or 0.54% to 1,812.53 and Jakarta Composite was down by 4.16 points or 0.08% to 5,089.41.