Markets trade firm despite bout of volatility

Markets despite giving up a major portion of their early gains were managing to hold in green. Some selling has appeared in the high beta bluechip stocks and traders were opting to book some profit after last few sessions of good gains and after the bourses hit their over two and half weeks intraday high ahead of the WPI inflation data for January. The PSU oil marketing companies were showing a mixed response to the decision of increase in petrol and diesel prices. The petrol price has been hiked by 82 paisa per litre and diesel by 61 paisa, the first increase since August 2014 and follows firming of oil prices in the international market. BPCL was up by around 2% and IOC was up by around 3%, while HPCL was down by 2%, the company has reported a net loss of Rs. 2636.80 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 as compared to net loss of Rs 961.45 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2013. There was just bout of profit booking in the early noon trades, otherwise the markets were holding firm supported by good going in Asian counterparts and report of continuing interest of foreign investors in Indian markets. On the sectoral front, realty, FMCG and auto were supporting the markets, while consumer durables, banks and oil & gas were trading weak.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29192.23, up by 97.30 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 29150.67 and 29325.35. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.74%, FMCG up by 1.40%, INFRA up by 0.92%, Power up by 0.81%, Auto up by 0.66% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.93%, Bankex down by 0.37%, Oil & Gas down by 0.27%, Capital Goods down by 0.15% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.49%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.14%, Tata Motors up by 1.86%, ITC up by 1.76% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.58%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.95%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.74%, Axis Bank down by 1.70%, ICICI Bank down by 1.02% and Reliance Industries down by 0.85% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in the second tranche of ongoing auction for 21 coal mines, the government has received 130 preliminary bids from companies like Essar Power, Hindalco, Adani Power and Jindal Power. A maximum of 16 bids came for Utkal C coal block in Odisha from bidders including Jindal Power, Essar Power, Sesa Sterlite and Adani Power Maharashtra, while another block Gare Palma IV/8 in Chhattisgarh received 13 bids from companies like Hindalco, JSPL, Sesa Sterlite and Balco among others.

Notably, Hindalco Industries piped six companies, including Monnet Ispat & Energy, Rungta Mines, UltraTech Cement and the prior allottee Usha Martin to bag the Kathautia mine in Jharkhand by offering Rs 2,860 per tonne of coal. While, Sunflag Iron & Steel beat Balco, Reliance Cement and Topworth Urja and Metals bagged Belgaon block in Maharashtra at Rs 1785 per tonne. The block was earlier owned by Sunflag and has 14 million tonne reserves.

In the first stage of the auction, the government found as many as 134 applications “technically qualifiable” of the total 176 preliminary bids received for 21 coal blocks that have been put for electronic auction The government had initially planned to auction 23 mines in first lot but had put on hold bidding for two mines due to litigations. The Ministry would go ahead of with the auction of mines as per schedule though there have some court cases as a consequence of which there have been some changes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8831.00, up by 25.50 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 8815.25 and 8870.10. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.35%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.24%, Tata Motors up by 1.88%, ITC up by 1.84% and BPCL up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds down by 2.04%, Axis Bank down by 1.81%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.76%, IDFC down by 1.33% and Bank Of Baroda down by 1.12% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were mostly in green, KOSPI Index was up by 0.73 points or 0.04% to 1,958.23, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased by 4.65 points or 0.26% to 1,805.60, Shanghai Composite gained 19.18 points or 0.6% to 3,223.00, Taiwan Weighted was up by 33.2 points or 0.35% to 9,529.51, Hang Seng was higher by 68.16 points or 0.28% to 24,750.70 and Nikkei 225 surged by 91.41 points or 0.51% to 18,004.77.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite lost 20.53 points or 0.38% to 5,353.63 and Straits Times was down by 4.46 points or 0.13% to 3,421.76