Markets continue to trade firm amid gains in FMCG, power stocks

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in afternoon session on the back of value buying in frontline blue chip stocks. Positive global cues as well as hopes of strong recovery in domestic economic growth encouraged domestic benchmarks to extend gains and all sectoral indices were trading in green. Sentiments got support as Finance Minister stressed that ongoing global slow growth is an opportunity for India and after the US, while global investors are looking at domestic equities to invest. Appreciation in rupee value against the dollar also added to the optimistic sentiments. FMCG, power and PSU stocks were witnessing firm buying. Among blue chip stocks, Tata Motors was top gainer up by around 2.43%, while Reliance Industries was top loser trading down by around 1.29%. Buying was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading down by over 1.40%.

Walchandnagar Industries has surged around 12% to 224, extending its previous day’s rally 18% surge, after the company said that it is in the process of reviving the discussion with Russian Company AEM for Nuclear business opportunity. Shares of Ashok Leyland were trading higher by around 3% to Rs 62 after the company had reported 48% y-o-y jump in total sales at 9,290 units in December 2014.

On global front, Asian markets were trading in green with Hang Seng up 0.53% to and Taiwan Weighted up by 1.74%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,100 and 27,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,502 stocks traded, 1,836 stocks advanced, while 601 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27148.72, up by 239.90 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 27101.94 and 27249.98. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.49%, while Small cap index up by 1.75%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.43%, Power up by 1.25%, PSU up by 1.23%, Bankex up by 1.23% and Auto up by 1.21%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.43%, HDFC Bank up by 2.29%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.94%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.89% and Coal India up by 1.85%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.29%, Sesa Sterlite down by 0.88%, Axis Bank down by 0.49%, Infosys down by 0.36% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s coal imports grew by 19% to 210.55 million tonnes (MT) in 2014 as against 176.97 MT in 2013 on the back of high demand from power sector.  During the year, steam coal imports stood at 162.96 MT, up 22% from 133.54 MT imported in 2013 whereas coking coal imports in 2014 rose by 4.04% to 37.06 MT from 35.62 MT in 2013.

During the April to December period of this fiscal, imports of coal stood at 167.60 MT, up 20.89% from 138.64 MT imported during the corresponding period of the last fiscal. Ongoing coal industry strike is likely to cause a further spurt in coal imports in coming months.

The Coal Ministry had notified that the focus of the ministry to increase coal production to the maximum extent possible by facilitating environment and forest clearances expeditiously and pursuing with state government for assistance in land acquisition.

India’s coal demand is around 35 percent higher than domestic supply. Coal shortage in the country has become a concern for Indian power sector as coal-fired plants account for 59% of India's installed electricity capacity. Presently, the Coal India (CIL) is the only producer of domestic coal accounting for around 80% of the domestic production. Amid rising domestic demand, annual target of the coal production for Coal India has been increased to 630.25MT for the current fiscal. Further, the government had also set a target of one billion tonnes of coal production for CIL by 2019 from the current levels of 500 MT.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8185.45, up by 83.35 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 8167.30 and 8209.85. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 4.36%, Asian Paints up by 3.15%, Cairn India up by 3.00%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.64% and Tata Motors up by 2.43%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.26%, Sesa Sterlite down by 0.84%, Zee Entertainment down by 0.51%, Power Grid Corpn down by 0.51% and Axis Bank down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Asian Markets were trading in green, Jakarta Composite up by 12.79 points or 0.25% to 5,219.91, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 13.59 points or 0.8% to 1,722.77, KOSPI Index up by 20.82 points or 1.11% to 1,904.65, Straits Times up by 35.78 points or 1.08% to 3,334.14, Hang Seng up by 124.96 points or 0.53% to 23,806.22, Taiwan Weighted up by 157.94 points or 1.74% to 9,238.03, Nikkei 225 up by 279.55 points or 1.66% to 17,164.88. While, Shanghai Composite down 53.29 points or 1.58% to 3,320.67.