Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Thursday as market participants indulged in enlarging positions on hopes of faster economic reforms by the government and optimism over the forthcoming Budget. However, upside gains are capped as traders remain cautious ahead of the Union Budget 2015-16.

On the global front, The US markets made mostly a negative close in last session, though the tech heavy Nasdaq ended modestly higher but the trade was impacted by the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January monetary policy meeting, which said that balance of risks associated with policy normalization had inclined them toward keeping interest rates at lower levels for a longer time. The Asian markets have mostly made a good start, though some indices are still not trading today.

Back home, shares of jewellery maker such as Gitanjali Gems, Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ), PC Jeweller, Rajesh Exports and Titan Company were trading higher by up to 5% on reports that the Reserve Bank of India allowed nominated banks to provide gold on loan to jewellers. On the sectoral front, metal, consumer durables and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while fast moving consumer remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1243 shares on the gaining side against 729 shares on the losing side while 62 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29451.46, up by 131.20 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 29386.88 and 29469.86. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46%, while Small cap index up by 0.67%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.38%, Consumer Durables up by 1.29%, Capital Goods up by 1.01%, Realty up by 0.84% and IT up by 0.64% while, FMCG down by 0.69% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.35%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.17%, Cipla up by 1.56%, Hindalco up by 1.52% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.45%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.21%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.66%, Wipro down by 0.61%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.39% and NTPC down by 0.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in good news to companies seeking approval for foreign direct investment (FDI), the government has further eased procedures for seeking permission of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for FDI; companies can now e-file a single copy application with the FIPB. The move aimed at ease of doing business in the country will improve business environment.

The Finance Ministry launched an upgraded and secure portal for e-filing of FDI applications, where applicants will have to submit only a single copy of the application for records with the FIPB Secretariat instead of 15-18 copies being filed earlier.

A Finance Ministry statement said that since the communication between the applicant, FIPB and other departments are online, any queries raised by the user would be replied through online mode. All the correspondence including updates/decisions will be communicated through SMS/emails, eliminating physical delivery and loss of time due to postal delays. Not only this, the applicants would also get SMS/email alerts related to the queries raised by the administrative ministries, inclusion of the proposal in the scheduled FIPB meeting and decisions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8896.85, up by 27.75 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 8879.10 and 8902.90. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.24%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.45%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.05%, Asian Paints up by 1.93% and Hindalco up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 1.96%, ACC down by 1.43%, ITC down by 1.41%, Cairn India down by 0.97% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.93% were the top losers.

In Asia, most of the equity indices were closed for the trade today; Nikkei 225 increased 75.09 points or 0.41% to 18,274.26.