Markets off day’s low; trade with modest gains of around 0.20%

Indian equity markets rebounding from day’s low, were trading with modest gains of over two tenths of a percent, which lifted both Sensex and Nifty above psychologically crucial 27,900 and 8,400 levels respectively. Meanwhile, broader indices continuing to outperform larger counterparts were trading with gains of around half a percent. Sustained capital inflows, encouraging manufacturing output data for December and hopes of further push to economic reforms continued to buoy trading sentiments at Dalal Street. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower, with the only exception of Shanghai Composite on the first trading day of the week, as a raft of sluggish manufacturing surveys released across Europe and Asia over the past week curbed risk appetites. Meanwhile, continued turmoil in the oil markets did little to help markets in Asia.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading higher, however stocks from Power, banking and Information Technology counters were the top losers of the session. While, Rupee’s recovery from day’s low weighed on the IT pivotal, banking stocks were trading lower on profit-booking after emerging as one of the top gainers in previous trading session on hopes of sectoral reforms.  On the flip side, much of the buying was witnessed by stocks from Consumer Durables, Auto and Capital Goods counters were the top gainers of the session. Capital Goods stocks have gained on robust PMI data for the month of December which was at its highest since end-2012 though BHEL is trading lower by 0.3% after paring early gains, While auto Stocks were in limelight after reporting their December Sales figures. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which have outnumbered declines in the ratio of 1233:777; while 31 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27945.98, up by 58.08 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 27879.83 and 28064.49. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.51%, while Small cap index up by 0.45%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.28%, Consumer Durables up by 1.25%, Capital Goods up by 1.20%, Metal up by 0.54% and Oil & Gas up by 0.43% while, Power down by 0.28%, TECK down by 0.24%, IT down by 0.15% and Bankex down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.68%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.10%, ONGC up by 2.05%, Tata Steel up by 2.02% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.96%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.47%, BHEL down by 1.13%, HDFC down by 0.93% and NTPC down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a major boost to e-governance programme, the government has allocated Rs 1,900 crore for the implementation of ‘Panch Deep’ e-governance programme to automate transactions of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in order to provide best health services to workers and labourers of unorganised sectors across India. Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya has stated that enrolment of insured persons in biometric system as per the WHO standards, installation of computers at all ESIC locations, connecting all ESI offices with headquarters and computerization of hospital information system, enterprise resource planning and accounts would be taken up under the programme. 

The Minister further added that under the project, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution would be installed across the country, which will give a unique card to the employees, which would help build a massive database of health records of all the members. The Centre has decided to revamp public hospitals and will give Rs 5 crore each to repair or renovate hospitals with 200 or more beds. Hospitals with less than 200 beds would get Rs 3 crore, while smaller dispensaries Rs 50 lakh.

Referring to Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the Minister added that out of 4,30,977 established employees, 29,000 members will get Universal Account Number (UAN) soon. So far labour identification numbers (LIN) to 7.41 lakh members applied online was delivered.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8408.45, up by 13.00 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 8389.85 and 8445.60. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.72%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.17%, ONGC up by 2.02%, Tata Steel up by 2.00% and Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.76%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.30%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.09%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.47%, HDFC down by 1.01% and HCL Tech. down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; with Straits Times declining by 42.64 points or 1.27% to 3,327.95; Nikkei 225 sliding by 42.06 points or 0.24% to 17,408.71; Taiwan Weighted shedding 33.15 points or 0.36% to 9,274.11; Jakarta Composite dropping 25.48 points or 0.49% to 5,217.29; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI plunging by 12.97 points or 0.74% to 1,739.80; KOSPI Index shaving off 10.69 points or 0.55% to 1,915.75 and Hang Seng edging lower by 4.23 points or 0.02% to 23,853.59. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite trading higher by 113.42 points or 3.51% to 3,348.09 was the only gainer amongst Asian pack.