Benchmarks extend gains; trade near intra-day high levels

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains to continue firm trade in late morning session, hovering near intra-day high levels on sustained buying by funds and retail investors, after the government’s projection of economy to grow at a faster pace of 7.4 per cent in the current fiscal as against 6.9 per cent in 2013-14. According to the latest revised GDP numbers, based on the new gross value added (GVA) methodology, Indian economy grew at a much faster pace of 6.9 per cent in fiscal year 2014, compared with 4.7 per cent using the old method. Furthermore, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government will make efforts to keep fiscal deficit within the targeted limit even as investments remain a challenge. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 28,450 and 8,600 levels respectively, with gains of over 0.85%. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading up by over a percent point.

Although, the traders have overlooked Delhi election results where the Aam Aadmi Party was heading towards a landslide victory. Some weakness may come as foreign funds continued to remain net sellers on domestic bourses. FPIs sold shares worth Rs 660.30 crore on February 09, 2015.

On global front, Asian stock markets traded mixed, amid tensions between Greece and its euro zone creditors, and as fresh Chinese data added to concerns about a persisting slowdown. Furthermore, US stocks fell on Monday as investors worried about Greek debt negotiations and disappointing Chinese economic data on top of uncertainty about U.S. interest rates. Back home, Indian rupee rose by seven paise to 62.10 against the dollar in early trade on fresh selling of dollars by exporters. Back on street, stocks from Banking, Metal and Consumer Durables counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from IT and Teck counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of Force Motors have surged after the company’s plan to set up a manufacturing facility at Chakan near Pune to produce a range of parts including engines, gearboxes and axles with annual capacity of 50,000 sets. On the other hand, shares of DLF dipped after posting a 9% decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 132 crore for the quarter ended December, owing to low sales and higher finance cost.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2407 stocks traded, 1503 stocks advanced, while 805 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28489.13, up by 261.74 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 28044.49 and 28522.77. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.23%, while Small cap index gained 1.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.13%, Metal up by 1.83%, Auto up by 1.60%, PSU up by 1.54% and Consumer Durables up by 1.46% while, IT down by 0.40% and TECK down by 0.38% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 4.03%, SBI up by 2.97%, Tata Motors up by 2.84%, ICICI Bank up by 2.78% and BHEL up by 2.57%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.58%, Wipro down by 0.82%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.45%, TCS down by 0.35% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released advanced Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimate, according to which the Indian economy is poised to grow by 7.4 percent in the current year, bettering 6.9% recorded last year. According to the latest revised GDP numbers, based on the new gross value added (GVA) methodology, Indian economy grew at a much faster pace of 6.9 percent in fiscal year 2014, compared with 4.7 per cent using the old method. In the third quarter ending December, the economy grew at 7.5 per cent, lesser than the second quarter growth of 8.2 percent, as growth in agricultural sector contracted by 0.4 percent as against a growth of 3.8 percent, mining and quarrying sector too expanded at a slower rate of 2.9 percent, while the manufacturing too slowed to 4.2 percent as against a growth of 5.9 percent in the same quarter last fiscal.

Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices in the year 2014-15 is likely to attain a level of Rs 106.57 lakh crore, as against the First Revised Estimate of GDP for the year 2013-14 of Rs 99.21 lakh crore, released on 30th January 2015. GDP at current prices in 2014-15 is likely to attain a level of Rs 126.54 lakh crore, up 11.5 percent from Rs 113.45 lakh crore in 2013-14.

Sector wise, the estimated growth in manufacturing, mining and quarrying, electricity, gas and water supply, and construction is estimated to be 6.8 percent, 2.3 percent, 9.6 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively during 2014-15 as compared to growth of 5.3 percent, 5.4 percent, 4.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, in 2013-14.

As far as per capita income is concerned, the per capita net national income during 2014-15 is estimated to be Rs 88,538, up 10.1 percent as compared to Rs 80,388 during 2013-14. At constant prices, the per capita income (at 2011-12 prices) during 2014-15 is likely to attain a level of Rs 74,193 as compared to Rs 69,959 in 2013-14.

As per the new estimation method the statistics office has recast the way in which it measures data in line with international norms, which takes market prices into account rather than the factor cost that was being considered previously. The base year was also changed to 2011-12 from 2004-05.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8602.10, up by 75.75 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 8470.50 and 8613.35. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.89%, ICICI Bank up by 3.41%, Bank of Baroda up by 3.00%, SBI up by 2.93% and PNB up by 2.82%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.07%, HCL Tech. down by 2.03%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.00%, Sun Pharma down by 1.71% and Wipro down by 1.02% were the top losers.

Asian markets traded mixed; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.21%, Hang Seng rose 0.02%, Straits Times advanced 0.33% and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 0.77%, Taiwan Weighted slipped 0.21%, Jakarta Composite shed 0.21% and KOSPI Index was down by 0.42%.