Benchmarks extend previous session’s jubilation; Nifty regains 8,200 mark

Extending their previous session’s jubilation, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Friday’s trade with a gain of around one percent with frontline gauges ending above their crucial 27,300 (Sensex) and 8,200 (Nifty) bastions. Markets after a firm start traded with traction throughout the session as the US Fed’s dovish stance on hiking interest rates in short-term spurred the market momentum across the globe. Also, the Cabinet approval for Goods and Services Tax (GST) buoyed the sentiment, prompting investors to go for short-covering ahead of the expiry next week. Some comfort also came with international credit rating agency Crisil saying that the Indian economy is well prepared to deal with any eventuality arising out of spike in the interest rates by the US Federal reserve. Also, there are reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken direct control of a project-monitoring body to fast-track investments worth almost $300 billion and revive manufacturing in the country.

Global cues too remained supportive with  European counters making a firm start with CAC, DAX and FTSE were trading with a gain of around half a percent in early deals on Friday, as French information technology services firm Atos SE leading a rally in tech stocks after unveiling a deal to buy Xerox Corp’s IT outsourcing arm. Asian markets too ended the session in the green terrain led by Japanese market which ended up with a gain of around 2.50%, ahead of the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy announcement today.

Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. Even though the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been sellers during the last few sessions, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) swiftly turned buyers picking up the opportunity to buy cheap. Meanwhile, rally in software and technology counters too aided the sentiments and stocks like Infosys, TCS and Wipro gained after encouraging first quarter earnings and revenue growth guidance from global IT major Accenture. Coal and power stocks too remained on buyers’ radar with the government coming out with draft rules for e-auction of 101 cancelled coal mines in the first phase and fixing a floor price of Rs 150 per tonne for sectors like steel, sponge iron, cement and captive power.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty rose by over sixty points to end above the psychological 8,200 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex rose by over two hundred and forty points to finish above the psychological 27,300 mark. Broader markets traded with traction and ended the session with a gain of around half a percentage point. The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,481 shares on the gaining side against 1,401 shares on the losing side while 111 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex surged by 245.27 points or 0.90%, to 27371.84, while the CNX Nifty soared by 65.90 points or 0.81% to 8,225.20.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 27497.12 and 27292.14, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.36%, while the Small cap index was up by 0.57%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.95%, Hindalco up by 2.64%, Coal India up by 2.49%, Wipro up by 2.33% and Tata Power up by 2.27%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.58%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.54%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.49%, ITC down by 1.37% and Cipla down by 1.20% were the only losers.

On the BSE Sectoral front IT up by 1.95%, Metal up by 1.79%, Oil & Gas up by 1.48%, TECK up by 1.39% and Capital Goods up by 1.29% were the top gainers, while FMCG down by 0.92%, Realty down by 0.82%, Auto down by 0.16% and Consumer Durables down by 0.03% were only losers in the space. 

Meanwhile, Domestic air traffic grew by 14.35 percent to 58.74 lakh in November as against 51.37 lakh, derived by the festive season rush. During November, IndiGo remained the market leader with 33.5 percent market share while Jet Airways remained at second spot with 18.4 percent share. SpiceJet's share was reduced to 14.9 percent on account of large scale cancellations of its flights during the period.

During the April- November 2014 period, air traffic registered a 9 percent growth with all seven Indian airlines combined having flown 609.43 lakh passengers in the period compared to 558 lakh passengers flown in November 2013.

Domestic air traffic is expected to enhance in coming months as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) for domestic carriers has become over 10% cheaper since October and is likely to see more price cuts in the next three months. ATF accounts for over 50% of domestic carriers' operating costs and thus domestic carriers are likely to cut fare prices due to falling global oil prices. 

The civil aviation industry in India has ushered in the new era of expansion, driven by factors such as low-cost carriers (LCC), modern airports, foreign direct investments (FDI) in domestic airlines, cutting edge information technology (IT) interventions and a growing emphasis on regional connectivity. Indian civil aviation industry is amongst the top 10 in the world with a size of around $16 billion. India has a vision of becoming the third largest aviation market by 2020.

The CNX Nifty touched a high and low of 8,263.45 and 8,208.60 respectively.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco Industries up by 3.30%, ICICI Bank up by 3.25%, Power Grid Corporation of India up by 3.04%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.80% and Wipro up by 2.70%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.54%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.84%, ITC down by 1.83%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.76% and Asian Paints down by 1.52% were the top losers.

European markets were trading in green, France’s CAC 40 was up by 0.11%, Germany’s DAX was up by 0.18% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.40%.

The Asian equity benchmarks ended in green on Friday, amid a global rally with Japan’s index jumping on a weaker yen and Chinese shares surged to a four-year high. Japanese government bond prices held mostly firm with two-year yield hitting a record low and yields up to four years staying below zero on expectations of a bond shortage next week, ahead of a large redemption. The Bank of Japan voted to hold monetary policy stable in an 8 to 1 board vote, maintaining a pace to buy 80 trillion yen of government bonds annually. Bank of Japan struck a slightly more upbeat view of the world’s number three economy, saying exports were showing signs of picking up while factory output has started to bottom out. The rate review was the first since Abe’s landslide victory in a December 14 election that gave him a fresh mandate to continue efforts to pull Japan out of 15 years of grinding deflation.

China has revised up the estimated size of its economy for 2013 by 3.4% to 58.8 trillion yuan ($9.5 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics stated but the revision will not affect economic growth this year. That marks an increase of 1.9 trillion yuan, or $305 billion, in the size of the Chinese economy that year, slightly below the entire gross domestic product of Malaysia during the same period.