Benchmarks trade jubilantly in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up start and are trading jubilantly in early deals on Thursday with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 27,100 (Sensex) and 8,150 (Nifty) levels on the back of firm global cues. The US markets regained some ground in last session coming out of a slew of decline, on good private sector jobs data and gain in crude prices. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time, taking cues from the US markets and as crude oil maintained its advances. Traders in the region were getting support from Fed Minutes where most of the officials agreed their commitment to be 'patient' on raising US interest rates.

Back home, traders opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after recent drubbing of over three percent. Some support came in from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the ongoing global slow growth is an opportunity for the country as investors are eyeing this market. The union minister said investments would trigger economic activity which will in turn boost growth and lead to job creation.

On the sectoral front, power, banking and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while oil and gas remained the lone loser 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 1590 shares on the gaining side against 330 shares on the losing side while 35 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27126.84, up by 218.02 points or 0.81% after trading in a range of 27101.94 and 27249.98. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.51%, while Small cap index up by 1.58%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.32%, Bankex up by 1.20%, Auto up by 1.16%, Capital Goods up by 1.09% and Healthcare up by 0.98% while, Oil & Gas down by 0.04% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.08%, Tata Motors up by 2.02%, Tata Power up by 1.47%, BHEL up by 1.43% and HDFC Bank up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 0.81%, Reliance Industries down by 0.81%, ONGC down by 0.33% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, car manufacturers in India, which just got an ugly shock with withdrawal of excise duty exemptions, may have something to hinge on in the new fiscal year since the centre is examining the possibility of extending incentives for export of cars to all markets, including large ones such as the European Union (EU) in view of dwindling exports for the industry.

The Heavy Industry Ministry has proposed to the Commerce Ministry to include car exports in the ‘focus product’ scheme so that shipments to major markets could be incentivized. Under the Focus Product scheme, an incentive of up to 5% of the export value is for exports of specific products to all markets. Under the present Foreign Trade Policy, an incentive of 2 per cent of export value is given to cars shipped from India to markets where the country has an insignificant presence, such as Bangladesh, Kenya, Kuwait, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore and Ukraine. China and Japan, too were included.

Notably, India’s car exports declined 8.3% to 2.68 lakh units in the April-September 2014-15 period, according to data from the Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM).

However, this is not for the first time that Heavy Ministry was proposing something of this sort. The Ministry in the ‘Make in India’ workshop as well, pitched for inclusion of cars in the Focus Product scheme, where it argued that such a sop would encourage manufacturing in India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8175.75, up by 73.65 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 8167.30 and 8209.85. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.63%, Coal India up by 2.08%, BPCL up by 2.04%, Tata Motors up by 2.00% and Jindal Steel & Power up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 0.73%, Sesa Sterlite down by 0.65%, ONGC down by 0.31% and Zee Entertainment down by 0.10% were the top losers.

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the green; Jakarta Composite rose 14.41 points or 0.28% to 5,221.52, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 14.71 points or 0.86% to 1,723.89, KOSPI Index surged 21.1 points or 1.12% to 1,904.93, Straits Times gained 30.3 points or 0.92% to 3,328.66, Hang Seng added 126.95 points or 0.54% to 23,808.21, Taiwan Weighted soared 164.96 points or 1.82% to 9,245.05 and Nikkei 225 was up by 318.69 points or 1.89% to 17,204.02. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 59.2 points or 1.75% to 3,314.75.