Benchmarks continue firm trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on optimistic note on sustained capital inflows, encouraging manufacturing output data for December and hopes of further push to economic reforms.  Traders were seen piling positions in Auto, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods while selling was witnessed in TECK, IT and Bankex sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Larsen & Toubro were trading in green after Citigroup upgraded the stock to Buy from neutral on strong inflow prospects and following the stock’s underperformance compared to the BSE Sensex.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,400 and 27,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1560:1236 while 116 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27940.81, up by 52.91 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 27862.38 and 28064.49. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 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 1.44%, Consumer Durables up by 1.26%, Capital Goods up by 1.16%, Oil & Gas up by 0.70%, PSU up by 0.36% while, TECK down by 0.63%, IT down by 0.56%, Bankex down by 0.04%, Power down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 2.69%, Tata Motors up by 2.37%, ONGC up by 2.22%, Tata Steel up by 2.08% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.97%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.98%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.70%, Hindalco down by 1.22%, HDFC down by 1.02% and TCS down by 0.74% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, retaining its earlier decision on net worth eligibility of bidders, Telecom panel reiterated that only telecom players with net worth of over Rs 100 crore, irrespective of whether they were holding spectrum or license or were new entrants in a band or a circle, could participate in the upcoming airwave auction. However, for the North East region and J&K service area, the net worth requirement for companies has been fixed at Rs 50 crore.

According to the telecom panel, strong balance sheets of telecom players bidding for airwaves would ensure efficient roll out of quality telecom services. With this, telecom operators like Aircel and Tata Teleservices (TTL) would find it difficult to bid for airwaves in the coming auction.

However, as per few media reports, note on the minutes of IMC meeting, held late last month, suggested that the committee had decided to hold on to its earlier view on the net worth as it felt lower availability of funds with a bidder would lower its capacity to raise funds, which in turn could hamper smooth running of its operation, expansion plans and quality of service.

Nevertheless, Telecom Panel also cited government's Digital India initiative as a reason crucial enough to ensure the financial strength of bidder for quick roll out of services.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8410.05, up by 14.60 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 8381.80 and 8445.60. There were 31 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.69%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.69%, Tata Motors up by 2.33%, ONGC up by 2.23% and Tata Steel up by 2.11%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.26%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.09%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.79%, HCL Tech. down by 1.35% and Hindalco down by 1.22% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 136.5 points or 0.57% to 23,721.32, Straits Times decreased 46.57 points or 1.38% to 3,324.02, Nikkei 225 decreased 42.06 points or 0.24% to 17,408.71, Taiwan Weighted decreased 33.15 points or 0.36% to 9,274.11, Jakarta Composite decreased 22.03 points or 0.42% to 5,220.74, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 16.16 points or 0.92% to 1,736.61 and KOSPI Index decreased 10.69 points or 0.55% to 1,915.75.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite increased 115.84 points or 3.58% to 3,350.52.

The European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 30.14 points or 0.31% to 9,734.59, France’s CAC decreased 15.7 points or 0.37% to 4,236.59 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 10.14 points or 0.15% to 6,537.66.