Benchmarks rally in early deals; Sensex regains 27,400 mark

Extending their previous session rally, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up start and are trading jubilantly in early deals on Friday with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 27,400 (Sensex) and 8,200 (Nifty) levels on the back of firm global cues. The US markets surged in last session, extending their rally on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement. Buying interest was also generated by a Labor Department report showing an unexpected drop in weekly jobless claims. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time led by Japanese market which is up by over 2%, ahead of the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy announcement today.

Back home, some comfort came in 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. This could help firms planning coal, power, steel and infrastructure project early clearance.

Meanwhile, none of the sectoral indices were trading in the red, while capital goods and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade. Metal, software, realty, power, technology and healthcare too were trading significantly. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1448 shares on the gaining side against 441 shares on the losing side while 57 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27433.92, up by 307.35 points or 1.13% after trading in a range of 27292.14 and 27472.73. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.25%, while Small cap index up by 1.53%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.72%, Auto up by 1.67%, Metal up by 1.45%, IT up by 1.38% and Realty up by 1.25% while, there were no losers on the BSE sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.73%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.58%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.54%, Coal India up by 2.42% and Wipro up by 2.12%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.22%, ITC down by 0.07% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to produce globally competitive products, India is planning to set up reverse special economic zones (SEZs) in Iran, mainly in the fertiliser and petrochemical sector. India is keen to explore the possibilities of setting up of reverse SEZs under which domestic firms mainly related to fertiliser and petrochemical sector will be encouraged to set up plants in other countries where raw material is in abundance and available at cheaper rates, while the final product will be imported back.

Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar has asserted that a Joint Working Group between India and Iran in these areas with officials from both the countries will work out a roadmap for cooperation. Meanwhile, some state-run firms include RCF and GNFCL are already working on a proposal to set up a urea-ammonia plant.

The Ministry is of the view that Iran could be an ideal place to start reverse SEZ project since many refineries in India already import crude from Iran and have working business relationship with Iranian companies. Meanwhile, India is also likely to extend the reverse SEZs project to Myanmar and Mozambique as these countries have abundance of oil and gas resources, a key feedstock for petrochemicals and petroleum industry.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8241.85, up by 82.55 points or 1.01% after trading in a range of 8208.60 and 8255.80. There were 41 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.00%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.66%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.60%, Coal India up by 2.33% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.29%, Cairn India down by 0.61%, DLF down by 0.18%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.15% and HCL Tech. down by 0.14% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 15.51 points or 0.91% to 1,715.46, KOSPI Index surged 28.46 points or 1.5% to 1,925.96, Straits Times soared 33.96 points or 1.05% to 3,277.61, Jakarta Composite gained 38.93 points or 0.76% to 5,152.28, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 93.33 points or 1.05% to 8,971.96, Hang Seng added 290.05 points or 1.27% to 23,122.26, Nikkei 225 was up by 380.21 points or 2.21% to 17,590.26. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 14.75 points or 0.48% to 3,042.77.