Markets hover around record high levels; Nifty continues to hold above 8, 700 mark

After bouncing off day’s low, local equity markets continued trading with gains of around 4/10 th of a percent, near the record high levels on sustained buying activities by funds and retail investors amidst positive global set-up, mainly on the back of overall macro outlook and optimism over the forthcoming budget. Both, Sensex and Nifty trading at day’s high, were hovering above psychologically crucial 28,850 and 8,700 levels respectively. However, the session turned out to be disappointing for broader indices, which were trading down with cut of around 0.20%-0.30%.

On the global front, Asian shares held firm on Wednesday as investors bet the European Central Bank will launch new quantitative easing this week, however, some caution ahead of the Bank of Japan’s policy announcement later in the day, to some extent weighed on the sentiment.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, however stocks from Metal, Realty and Power counters were the top losers. On the flip side, maximum demand was witnessed by stocks from Consumer Durable, Capital Goods and Technology counters were the prominent gainers of the session. The overall market breadth on BSE were in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1620:1095; while 102 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28897.25, up by 112.58 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 28792.57 and 28958.10. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.22%, while Small cap index down by 0.32%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.76%, Capital Goods up by 0.97%, INFRA up by 0.80%, TECK up by 0.64% and Bankex up by 0.42% while, Metal down by 1.08%, FMCG down by 0.49%, Realty down by 0.44%, Oil & Gas down by 0.33% and Power down by 0.32% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.77%, HDFC up by 2.76%, SBI up by 2.37%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.32% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.21%, Cipla down by 2.18%, ITC down by 1.62%, Hindalco down by 1.56% and ONGC down by 1.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asserted that India will continue to introduce reforms including through the use of ordinances to make it easier for companies to do business in India. Highlighting the government’s commitment to improve the India’s ranking in global ease-of-doing business indices, the Minister stated that in cases where parliamentary approval would have taken time the government used the ordinance route to rapidly implement the changes. Since May 2014, the new government has introduced more than 40 changes to the rules of the Companies Act 2013. Nirmala Sitharaman is currently on the UK visit aimed at strengthening trade and investment ties between both countries.

Persuading global investors towards Indian growth story, Commerce Minister stressed that the government would not use retrospective taxation as a measure of revenue generation and the government is committed to simplifying the tax framework and will announce some more measures in forthcoming budget.

The UK is among the top ten countries that invest more in India. FDI during the April-November FY15 increased by 22% y-o-y to $18.88 billion from $15.45 billion recorded in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The sectors that received highest inflows during the first eight months of current fiscal include telecommunications ($2.47 billion), services ($1.84 billion) automobile ($1.53 billion), pharmaceuticals ($1.15 billion) and computer software and hardware ($862 million).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8720.05, up by 24.45 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 8689.60 and 8741.85. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.79%, Bank Of Baroda up by 3.55%, HDFC up by 2.66%, SBI up by 2.47% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.42%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.65%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.52%, NMDC down by 1.92%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 1.77% and Hindalco down by 1.76% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading higher; with KOSPI Index trading higher by 2.92 points or 0.15% to 1,921.23;  Straits Times trading higher by 7.8 points or 0.23% to 3,341.82;  Jakarta Composite trading higher by 7.88 points or 0.15% to 5,173.97;  FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading higher by 8.64 points or 0.49% to 1,758.75; Taiwan Weighted trading higher by 68.02 points or 0.74% to 9,319.71;  Shanghai Composite trading higher by 149.98 points or 4.73% to 3,323.03;  Hang Seng trading higher by 381.72 points or 1.59% to 24,332.88. On the flip side,  Nikkei 225 trading lower by 85.82 points or 0.49% to 17,280.48 were the top loser among the Asian pack