Markets trade at day’s high on sustained buying activities

Local equity markets continued to trade with strength on sustained buying activities by funds and retail investors thanks to a spate of upbeat U.S. data which contrasted with signs of spreading weakness in China and Europe, which revived risk appetite across the globe. Trading at day’s high, both Sensex and Nifty were trading higher above psychologically crucial 28,200 and 8,450 levels respectively with gains of over half a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices also trading in line with larger counterparts were up with gains of around four tenths of a percent.
 
On the global front, Asian shares’ gains were underpinned by data in US which showed that initial U.S. weekly jobless claims fell, while factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region grew at its fastest pace in two decades and existing home sales strengthened.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, while stocks from IT, TECk and Metal counters were the top losers of the session. On the flip side, much of the bourses’ gains were led by stocks from Banking, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas counters which were the prominent gainers of the session. Banking counter came into limelight after ING Vysya Bank-Kotak Mahindra Bank merger deal. Rupee recovery from eight and half month lows weighed on IT stocks. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1453:1257; while 112 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28256.66, up by 189.10 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 28038.40 and 28320.99. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.41%, while Small cap index up by 0.38%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.37%, Consumer Durables up by 1.40%, Oil & Gas up by 0.84%, Capital Goods up by 0.77% and PSU up by 0.69% while, IT down by 0.78%, TECK down by 0.54% and Metal down by 0.32% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.85%, SBI up by 2.66%, ICICI Bank up by 2.49%, Cipla up by 2.22% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.70%, Tata Steel down by 0.76%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.73%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.57% and Coal India down by 0.45% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has approved rural electrification scheme Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, which would replace the existing Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) and would entail an investment of Rs 43,033 crore. The balance work relating of the ongoing scheme of RGGVY till 2022 will get subsumed in this scheme as a distinct component for rural electrification and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), for this purpose, has already approved the scheme cost of Rs 39,275 crore including budgetary support of Rs 35,447 crore. This outlay will be carried forward to the new scheme of DDUGJY in addition to the outlay of Rs 43,033 crore.

The scheme is aimed at strengthening and augmentation of sub transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including metering of distribution transformers and feeders.  It would have components to separate agriculture and non-agriculture feeders facilitating judicious rostering of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers in rural areas.

The estimated cost of the scheme for two components of Rs 43,033 crore, includes the requirement of budgetary support of Rs 33,453 crore from the government over the entire implementation period.

Further, the scheme is likely to work towards improvement in hours of power supply in rural areas, reduction in peak load and improvement in billed energy based on metered consumption and providing access to electricity to rural households.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8461.45, up by 59.55 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 8398.60 and 8482.00. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 6.35%, SBI up by 2.81%, Axis Bank up by 2.81% and ICICI Bank up by 2.53% and Cipla up by 2.34%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.22%, Infosys down by 1.84%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.90%, Tata Steel down by 0.88% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly positive; with KOSPI Index were trading higher by 6.8 points or 0.35% to 1,964.84; Taiwan Weighted gained 12.66 points or 0.14% to 9,091.53; Straits Times rose 25.98 points or 0.78% to 3,341.58; Shanghai Composite advanced by 32.77 points or 1.34% to 2,485.43; Nikkei 225 edged higher by 56.65 points or 0.33% to 17,357.51; Hang Seng rose 132.15 points or 0.57% to 23,481.79. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down by 10.9 points or 0.6% to 1,811.39 and  Jakarta Composite slid 4.16 points or 0.08% to 5,089.41