Benchmarks extend gains; trade near intra-day high level

Indian equities added gains to continue its firm trade in the late afternoon session hovering near the highest point of the day on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters amid firm global cues. Sharp buying appeared in IT, realty and metal stocks enthused the domestic markets to extend gain. The sentiments were on positive mood from early trades mainly driven by China’s surprise move last week to cut interest rates for the first time in more than two years. Furthermore, sustained capital inflows on expectations of further economic reforms by the government, expectation of possible rate cut and firm global cues also buoyed investors ‘sentiments.  Most of the major sectoral indices were trading in green with metal and IT as top gaining indices, trading up by over 1.6%. Buying was broad based as both mid and small cap indices were trading up by over 0.30%. However, investors were seen selling oil and gas and FMCG stocks.

KNR Constructions has gained close to 4% to Rs 326.25 on winning an order worth Rs 109.56 crore from the Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation Limited. Global Offshore Services has soared 8% to Rs 588 on the back of heavy volumes after the company said its subsidiary firm has taken delivery of platform supply vessel.

On global front, Asian markets were trading in green with Shanghai Composite up by 1.85% and Nikkei 225 up by 0.33%. European markets also made positive start. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,500 and 28,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,976 stocks traded, 1,348 stocks advanced, while 1,497 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28480.95, up by 146.32 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 28394.48 and 28514.98. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.32%, while Small cap index up by 0.30%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.30%, IT up by 1.63%, Realty up by 1.36%, TECK up by 1.25% and Bankex up by 0.87%. On the other hand, Oil & Gas down by 0.77% and FMCG down by 0.27% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 4.37%, Tata Steel up by 3.53%, Tata Power up by 3.01%, Infosys up by 2.77% and BHEL up by 1.86%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.46%, ONGC down by 1.06%, Cipla down by 0.85%, Tata Motors down by 0.54% and ITC down by 0.47% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, according to the Industry body FICCI, Indian manufacturing sector is likely to witness a moderate growth in the third quarter of current fiscal. FICCI Manufacturing Survey highlighted that firms are less optimistic for Q3FY15 than Q2FY15 for the manufacturing sector as the proportion of respondents expecting higher production vis-a-vis last year has fallen to 52% in Q3 from 62% in Q2. However, the growth is likely to be more broad based during the reported quarter as most of the sectors are expecting improvement in production.

The Survey further highlighted that export outlook for manufacturing during Q3 has improved slightly from the previous two quarters but it remains weak and uncertain. The proportion of respondents expecting higher exports in Q3FY15 is 42% compared to 40% in the Q2FY15 and 36% in the first quarter of FY15. Hiring outlook also remains bleak as 73% of respondents are not likely to hire additional workforce in the next three months.

The FICCI Survey has covered 392 manufacturing units from both large and SME segments with a combined annual turnover of over Rs 4 lakh crore. The survey gauges the expectations of manufacturers for thirteen major sectors that include textiles, capital goods, metals, chemicals and cement among others.
The output of manufacturing sector, which occupies 75.52% weightage in the overall index, grew by 2.5% in September. The cumulative growth of country’s manufacturing sector during April-September FY15 stood at 2.0% as compared to 0.2% growth in the same period of previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8516.95, up by 39.60 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 8490.80 and 8529.00. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 4.79%, Hindalco up by 4.34%, DLF up by 3.95%, Tata Steel up by 3.48% and Tata Power up by 2.95%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corpn. down by 3.48%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.60%, Reliance Industries down by 1.52%, ONGC down by 1.03% and ACC down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, KOSPI Index up by 13.7 points or 0.7% to 1,978.54, Jakarta Composite up by 15.83 points or 0.31% to 5,127.88, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 21.91 points or 1.21% to 1,831.04, Taiwan Weighted up by 30.8 points or 0.34% to 9,122.33, Shanghai Composite up by 46.09 points or 1.85% to 2,532.88, Nikkei 225 up by 56.65 points or 0.33% to 17,357.51, Hang Seng up by 456.02 points or 1.95% to 23,893.14. While, Straits Times decreased 5.06 points or 0.15% to 3,340.26.

The European markets were trading in green; Germany’s DAX up by 8.94 points or 0.09% to 9,741.49, France’s CAC up by 12.57 points or 0.29% to 4,359.80 and UK’s FTSE 100 down 0.09 points or 0% to 6,750.67.