Markets trade near intra-day high level in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains to continue firm trade in afternoon session, hovering near the intra-day high levels of the day on the back of heavy capital inflows buoyed by the recent economic reforms announced by the government and on hopes of more reforms in the days ahead. Sentiments got a boost as HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), rose to 54.5 in December, its highest since end-2012. Further, Finance Ministry statement that fiscal position of the government is likely to improve during January-March quarter on the back of possible pick up in tax revenue realisation, receipts from spectrum auction and stake sale of PSUs also encouraged the domestic benchmarks to extend gains and all the sectoral indices were trading in green on BSE. Banking, consumer durables and power stocks were on buyers' radar on hopes of faster reforms by the new government. Indian airline stocks gained as oil marketing companies have cut jet fuel prices by 12.5 per cent. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid and small cap indices trading up by over 1%.

Shares of Kalpataru Power Transmission were up over 2% at Rs 236 after HDFC Mutual Fund acquired over 1.78 million shares through two bulk deals. HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private sector bank has surged nearly 2% to Rs 966 after recording highest transactions via mobile phones. The bank piped its rival ICICI Bank to clinch the top position in mobile banking transactions.

On global front, Asian markets were trading in green. Straits Times up by 4.68 points or 0.14% to 3,369.83 and KOSPI Index up by 10.85 points or 0.57% to 1,926.44.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,300 and 27,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,535 stocks traded, 1,714 stocks advanced, while 798 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27838.26, up by 330.72 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 27519.26 and 27855.22. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.05%, while Small cap index up by 1.04%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.47%, Consumer Durables up by 1.34%, Power up by 1.23%, INFRA up by 1.22%, Capital Goods up by 1.22%. There was no losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 3.54%, BHEL up by 2.12%, Axis Bank up by 2.00%, Tata Motors up by 1.86% and ICICI Bank up by 1.81%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.11% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a bid to take advantage of a slump in global oil prices to five-year low to shore up revenue without stoking inflation, the government raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre . Excise duty on normal or unbranded petrol has been hiked from Rs 4.95 per litre to Rs 6.95 a litre and on unbranded diesel from Rs 3.96 to Rs 5.96 a litre. Similarly, excise duty on branded petrol has been raised from Rs 6.10 to Rs 8.10 a litre and on branded diesel from Rs 6.25 to Rs 8.25 per litre.

The move to hike excise duty by third time since November will help raise additional Rs 6,000 crore during remaining three months of the current fiscal. The excise duty hike has offset the reduction that has become necessary as international oil rates plunged to their lowest level since May 2009 owing to the oversupply in international markets.The government’s notification highlighted that in order to fund the ambitious infrastructure development programme of the government, particularly the building of 15,000-km of roads, during current and next financial year, it has decided to increase basic excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre. Allocation of these resources to the road sector will also spur economic activity and employment generation arising from the road construction sector, the notification added.  With three excise duty hikes since November, the government will mop up about Rs 17,000 crore this fiscal to contain fiscal deficit.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8380.15, up by 96.15 points or 1.16% after trading in a range of 8288.70 and 8385.65. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 3.64%, HDFC up by 3.43%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 3.16%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.19% and BHEL up by 2.12%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 0.86%, NMDC down by 0.27% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.19% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian Markets were trading in green, Straits Times up by 4.68 points or 0.14% to 3,369.83, KOSPI Index up by 10.85 points or 0.57% to 1,926.44, Jakarta Composite up by 10.88 points or 0.21% to 5,237.82 and Hang Seng up by 156.81 points or 0.66% to 23,761.85. While, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down 11.38 points or 0.65% to 1,749.87.