Benchmarks add gains; Bankex, FMCG lead

Indian equity markets extended gains and continued trading in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Traders were seen piling position in Bankex, FMCG and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in Infra sector stocks. In scrip specific development, the country’s largest public sector lender, State Bank of India (SBI) was trading firm on reporting over 30% jump in net profit at Rs 2,910 crore for the third quarter ended December 2014 on the back of stronger other income despite higher provisioning for bad loans. Gillette India was trading in green after reporting a three-fold jump in net profit at Rs 36.86 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 (Q2), on back of strong operational performance. BHEL was trading in red after reporting its December quarter results which disappointed the street.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,750 and 29,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1420:1286 while 100 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29048.95, up by 243.85 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 28835.70 and 29081.15. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.75%, while Small cap index up by 0.56%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.30%, FMCG up by 0.98%, PSU up by 0.92%, Consumer Durables up by 0.85%, Metal up by 0.71% while, INFRA down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 6.47%, TCS up by 2.53%, Sun Pharma up by 2.50%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.43% and Wipro up by 2.25%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 3.77%, BHEL down by 3.34%, ONGC down by 1.27%, HDFC Bank down by 0.52% and Infosys down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has asked oil producers to provide Rs 10,896 crore in subsidies to offset some of the losses incurred by state retailers that have been selling fuel at government-set low rates. In addition, the federal finance ministry has agreed to support the retailers with a Rs 5085 crore subsidy for the December quarter.

Since the government regulates retail prices of liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene, State-run producers Oil and Natural Gas Corp , Oil India and GAIL (India) sell crude and related products at a discount to the retailers get cash subsidies from the government for selling fuel at below market rates. The three fuel retailers i.e. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, had suffered revenue losses of Rs 15981 crore during the quarter.

According to reports, while IOC, the country’s biggest refiner and fuel retailer will get a subsidy of Rs 8982 crore, HPCL and BPCL will get subsidy 3586 crore and Rs 3413 crore respectively. On the flip side, ONGC will pay a subsidy of Rs 9458 crore while Oil India`s share is pegged at Rs 1438 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8789.40, up by 77.85 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 8729.65 and 8797.05. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 6.52%, Lupin up by 2.98%, BPCL up by 2.78%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.63% and TCS up by 2.63%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 4.06%, BHEL down by 3.32%, ONGC down by 1.14%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.74% and HDFC Bank down by 0.56% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Straits Times increased 0.98 points or 0.03% to 3,420.15, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 6.05 points or 0.34% to 1,795.12, Jakarta Composite increased 14.91 points or 0.28% to 5,358.32, KOSPI Index increased 15.87 points or 0.82% to 1,957.50, Shanghai Composite increased 30.41 points or 0.96% to 3,203.83, Taiwan Weighted increased 33.2 points or 0.35% to 9,529.51 and Hang Seng increased 260.39 points or 1.07% to 24,682.54.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 decreased 66.36 points or 0.37% to 17,913.36.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 23.17 points or 0.49% to 4,749.37, Germany’s DAX increased 49.46 points or 0.45% to 10,969.11 and UK’s FTSE 100 increased 40.42 points or 0.59% to 6,868.53.