Markets trade at day’s high on sustained buying activities on last trading session of CY 2014

Going from strength to strength, local equity markets were trading at day’s high point as investors continued to pour their money into equities on last trading session of CY 2014 amidst hopes that momentum would sustain in 2015 should the government announce additional economic reforms and the RBI start cutting interest rates. Both, Sensex and Nifty were trading above psychologically crucial 27,400 and 8,250 levels respectively, with gains of around two tenths of a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices also outperforming larger counterparts were trading with gains of over 0.70%.

On the global front, on the last trading day of 2014, Asian shares were mixed amid thin volume, with Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines shuttered for the holiday season. The only data for the day was the HSBC/Markit China manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for December, which came in at 49.6. The reading was up slightly from the reading of 49.5 in the preliminary reading, but still lower than November's 50.0.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in green, however stocks from Auto counter were the only losers. On the flip side, maximum demand was witnessed by stocks from Infrastructure, Power and Realty counters were the only gainers of the session. Power and Infra stocks continued to their gaining spree  after Union Cabinet approved an ordinance to amend the contentious land acquisition act, which would relax some limitations including a 'consent clause' which so far has acted as obstacle for power, highways, housing, defence and infrastructure projects, thereby holding up the economy's growth potential. Meanwhile, banking stocks also were advancing on rate cut hopes. However, auto counter only lost out on steam after reports suggested that excise concessions to the industry will be withdrawn from January 1, 2014. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1505:1043; while 112 shares remained unchanged

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27459.51, up by 55.97 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 27346.00 and 27502.41. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.83%, while Small cap index up by 0.70%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were INFRA up by 1.11%, Power up by 1.11%, Realty up by 0.84%, Capital Goods up by 0.80% and Oil & Gas up by 0.54% while, Auto down by 0.13% was lone index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.63%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.09%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.01%, Hindalco up by 0.99% and Axis Bank up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.65%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.63%, HDFC down by 0.61%, HDFC Bank down by 0.56% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to boost the infrastructure development in the country, Environment Ministry has provided a major relaxation for faster execution of all linear projects including roads, rail, power transmission lines, water supply lines and laying of optic fibre cables. Such infrastructure projects are likely to implement soon after getting in-principle approval from local authorities as the ministry intimated the District Forest Officers (DFO) to cut down the time to project approval work by three to six months. The ministry relaxation also included as working permission for tree cutting and commencement of work. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has applauded the move, underscoring that getting permission for tree cutting, which is the first step to start work used to take a long. This decision and delegation of power to Divisional Forest Officer will help to fast-track project execution.

Environment and forest clearance were remained the main reasons for delay for the implementation of infrastructure projects mainly highway projects. During the past few months, a number of initiatives have already been taken to streamline green clearances, particularly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set up an inter-ministerial committee on infrastructure under the Minister of Transport Nitin Gadkari.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8270.40, up by 22.15 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 8243.75 and 8280.05. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 2.55%, Cairn India up by 2.45%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.90% Indusind Bank up by 1.69% and Power Grid Corpn. up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.76%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 0.82%, BPCL down by 0.61%, HDFC Bank down by 0.51% and HCL Tech. down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; with Jakarta Composite trading higher by 48.57 points or 0.94% to 5,226.95; Shanghai Composite trading higher by 68.81 points or 2.17% to 3,234.6; Hang Seng trading higher by 103.94 points or 0.44% to 23,605.04, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading higher by 0.55 points or 0.03% to 1,767.38. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 down by 279.07 points or 1.57% to 17,450.77; KOSPI Index slid by 12.27 points or 0.64% to 1,915.59 and Straits Times shed 0.96 points or 0.03% to 3,365.15.