Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Extending their northward journey, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Monday supported by firm global cues. The US markets moved higher in last session, though the gains were modest but traders continued drawing comfort with Fed’s reassurance of methodical rate increases. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time supported by gain in commodity stocks amid a rally in crude oil.

Back home, some support came in from a private survey which stated that India remains one of the most preferred investment destinations for global investors while domestic companies expect stable economic conditions in the near term. However, gains on the up-side remained capped after Finance Ministry’s Mid-Year Economic Analysis that has stated meeting the 4.1 per cent fiscal deficit target for 2014-15 a 'major challenge'. There will be another concern from a report that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country’s services sector, which contributes about 60 per cent to India’s GDP, fell 7.5 per cent to $1.22 billion during the first half of the current fiscal.

On the sectoral front, fast moving consumer goods, power and realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software and technology remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1167 shares on the gaining side against 697 shares on the losing side while 61 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27433.06, up by 61.22 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 27391.40 and 27509.59. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.71%, while Small cap index up by 0.57%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.30%, Power up by 1.02%, Realty up by 1.01%, PSU up by 0.99%, Metal up by 0.87% while, IT down by 0.57% and TECK down by 0.44% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.14%, GAIL India up by 2.03%, Coal India up by 1.82%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.54% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.49%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 0.89%, Infosys down by 0.84%, ICICI Bank down by 0.79%, Reliance Industries down by 0.74% and TCS down by 0.65% were the top losers.

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 is currently trading at 8239.95, up by 14.75 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 8229.50 and 8260.85. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 3.21%, NMDC up by 2.63%, GAIL India up by 2.11%, Cairn India up by 2.00% and NTPC up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.01%, ICICI Bank down by 1.01%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.94%, Reliance Industries down by 0.87% and BPCL down by 0.83% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; KOSPI Index rose 9.45 points or 0.49% to 1,939.43, Shanghai Composite gained 12.26 points or 0.39% to 3,120.85, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged 24.33 points or 1.42% to 1,740.32, Straits Times increased 28.95 points or 0.88% to 3,308.48, Taiwan Weighted added 70.18 points or 0.78% to 9,069.70 and Hang Seng was up by 270.65 points or 1.17% to 23,387.28. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 18.48 points or 0.1% to 17,602.92 and Jakarta Composite was down by 1.57 points or 0.03% to 5,143.05.