Benchmarks make gap-up opening on firm global cues

Extending their previous session jubilation, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening amid firm global cues. The US markets closed higher on Thursday, with the largest advance in three weeks, as two days of steady oil prices along with dovish comments by a Federal Reserve member helped further fuel a buying frenzy which begun on Wednesday. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time with strong cues overnight from Wall Street and Europe as well as steady oil prices boosting investor sentiment.

Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. Sentiments remained up-beat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that significant downward trend in inflation has been recorded in the second and third quarter of 2014-15. The external environment has also largely turned in India’s favour. Meanwhile, Sebi has proposed electronic-IPO (e-IPO) to eliminate printing application form and reduce the overall cost of public issuance. The regulator said this will reduce the post issue timelines from 12 days to 6 days.

On the sectoral front, healthcare, metal and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while there were no losers 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 1329 shares on the gaining side against 574 shares on the losing side while 69 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27443.22, up by 168.51 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 27404.19 and 27507.67. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.67%, while Small cap index up by 0.68%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.74%, Metal up by 0.82%, Capital Goods up by 0.74%, Oil & Gas up by 0.73% and PSU up by 0.66% while there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 3.02%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.51%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.47%, Tata Steel up by 2.28% and Sun Pharma up by 1.79%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.41%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.76%, Infosys down by 0.45%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.25% and GAIL India down by 0.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Indian Railways' revenue Earnings grew by 12.57% to Rs 1,14,656 crore during April-December 2014 as against Rs 1, 01, 856 crore during the same period last year.

Segment wise, earnings from goods registered an increase of 11.35% to Rs 77,161.55 crore from Rs 68,776.35 crore. On the other hand, earnings from the passenger segment stood at Rs 31,955.07 crore as compared to Rs 27,646.13 crore, registering an increase of 15.59% during the April-December 2014. The total approximate numbers of passengers booked declined by 1.64% to 6,256.16 million compared to 6,360.15 million in the reported period. 

Indian Railways is an important sector for India and has the potential to raise India's economic growth by over one percent. Therefore, it has become imperative to modernize, strengthen and expand the Indian railway network. 

Ever since its origin, Indian Railways had always been shut off from receiving any kind of FDI, considering security risks involved. However, in August this year, the government had eased FDI norms permitting 100 percent investment in rail projects, such as high-speed trains, suburban service, dedicated freight corridors, freight and passenger terminals. FDI is also being permitted for rail route electrification, signalling system and logistics parks.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8285.50, up by 50.90 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 8272.95 and 8303.30. There were 38 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 3.19%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.44%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.37%, Tata Steel up by 2.23% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.00%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.48%, Asian Paints down by 0.99%, DLF down by 0.81%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.66% and Infosys down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Asian equity indices were trading mostly in the green; Taiwan Weighted rose 3.13 points or 0.03% to 9,241.16, Straits Times gained 3.72 points or 0.11% to 3,348.83, Shanghai Composite increased 8.18 points or 0.25% to 3,301.63, Jakarta Composite added 20 points or 0.38% to 5,231.83, KOSPI Index surged 22.74 points or 1.19% to 1,927.39, Nikkei 225 jumped 61.84 points or 0.36% to 17,228.94 and Hang Seng was up by 246.22 points or 1.03% to 24,081.75. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.06 points or 0.06% to 1,727.00.