Benchmarks continue their firm trade; Sensex above 28,700 level

Local equity markets have added more ground on the last trading day of the week or rather on the first trading day of the new Future & Option series as funds and retail investors engaged in enlarging their positions, taking cues from the firming trend on other Asian bourses. Stocks from Bankex, PSU and Consumer Durables counters were enticing maximum traction, thereby taking the bourses higher. However, the stocks from Power and Metal space are only the laggards. 

At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 28,700 and 8,550 levels respectively, with gains of around one percent. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by over half a percentage point. There is no sign of profit booking from any corner and the gains are visible across the board.   Sentiments on the street bolstered as global crude oil prices fell to over 4-year lows, which is likely to help the government to tackle both current account and fiscal deficits and also lower subsidy bill. The sentiment remained further upbeat with global ratings agency Moody’s report which expects the country's GDP to grow at 5.3 per cent in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, better than 4.8 per cent clocked in the year-ago period.  In scrip specific development, shares of SMS Pharma surged after the legal disputes between the company and Natco Pharma have been amicably settled. Furthermore, shares of all three listed state-owned oil marketing companies BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil Corporation were trading higher after Brent crude fell to $72.58 a barrel.

On global front, most of Asian markets were trading higher after the OPEC decided not to cut oil production. Back home, Indian rupee was trading slightly lower against the dollar as investors avoided taking huge positions ahead of key economic data due later on Friday.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2386 stocks traded, 1485 stocks advanced, while 806 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28715.16 up by 276.25 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 28765.99 and 28483.99. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.09%, while Small cap index gained 0.77%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.66%, PSU up by 1.50%, Consumer Durables up by 1.21%, Auto up by 1.20% and Capital Goods up by 0.88% while, Power down by 0.12% and Metal down by 0.11% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 3.83%, Axis Bank up by 2.96%, ICICI Bank up by 2.37%, HDFC up by 1.94% and HDFC Bank up by 1.54%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.07%, BHEL down by 0.58%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.56%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.27% and Tata Power down by 0.27% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, A day ahead of the official announcement of the GDP data for the September quarter, global ratings agency Moody's in its report has said that country's GDP could grow at 5.3 per cent in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, better than 4.8 per cent clocked in the year-ago period. It has further stated that the services sector would continue to expand strongly and drive GDP growth on the production side.

The report has stated that the economy's growth reached a recent nadir around the middle 2013 but has been steadily improving since then and the downside risks to growth diminished as the government shored up its fiscal position and external account. Moody’s has said that its estimate of GDP growing at 5.3 per cent in the September quarter is in line with the steady cyclical upswing of recent quarters. It has further stated that the general elections in May helped lift investor sentiment and business confidence, though it will take a while before this translates into better performance in the real economy.

Indian economy grew by 4.8 per cent in the second quarter of the last fiscal, while the growth rate was 4.7 per cent for the entire 2013-14 fiscal, and the finance ministry in the Economic Survey has predicted the GDP this year to be on the lower side of the 5.4-5.9 per cent. Even Reserve Bank of India, despite a likely recovery in Q2 and Q3, expects the full-year growth to be around 5.5 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8586.85 up by 92.65 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 8593.45 and 8516.25. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 5.82%, Bank of Baroda up by 5.45%, BPCL up by 4.59% and PNB up by 4.27% and SBI up by 3.97%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 3.52%, DLF down by 1.69%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 1.37%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.11% and BHEL down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green, Straits Times gained 0.46%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.46%, Hang Seng up by 0.24%, Shanghai Composite increased by 1.47% and Nikkei 225 surged by 1.17%. On the other hand Jakarta Composite was lower by 0.34%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 0.42% and KOSPI Index was down by 0.18%.