Benchmarks add gains; Capital Goods, Realty lead

Indian equity markets added gains and continued trading in green hovering near the highest point of the day on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on positive note after the global rating agency S&P sharply revised India’s growth forecast for the next several years to reflect a recent change in how gross domestic product is calculated by the government. The sentiments also got a push after the pre-Budget Economic Survey tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament showed that Indian’s economy is likely to grow above 8% in 2015-16. Traders were seen piling positions in Capital Goods, Realty and Metal stocks while selling was witnessed in FMCG sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Rolta India and Bharat Electronics were trading firm after Ministry of Defence (MoD) selected the exclusive consortium of BEL and Rolta India as a Development Agency for the Battlefield Management System (BMS) project worth over Rs 50,000 crore.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green. 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 1615:922 while 106 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29020.94, up by 274.29 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 28837.06 and 29020.94. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.27%, while Small cap index up by 1.14%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 3.30%, Realty up by 3.14%, Metal up by 2.88%, PSU up by 1.96%, Power up by 1.94% while, FMCG down by 1.23% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 4.36%, Tata Power up by 3.99%, Hindalco up by 3.44%, ICICI Bank up by 3.08% and Coal India up by 2.88%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.14%, GAIL India down by 1.23%, Wipro down by 0.81%, TCS down by 0.77% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in an encouraging development, RBI’s deputy governor S.S. Mundra underscored economic growth gradually picking up and India to meet the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI)’s inflation target of 6% by January 2016.  He also pointed to the possibility of some global uncertainty, but at the same time highlighted that system was well prepared to deal with systematic shocks.

Bolstering prospects for further interest rate cuts, India’s consumer prices inflation accelerated to 5.11% in January, after shifting to a new base year for calculating prices, but stayed well below the central bank`s target.

The deputy government further stated that the state run banks would require Rs 2.5 trillion in capital to meet Basel III requirements by 2019, which is higher than the requirement of Rs 2.4 trillion envisaged for these banks earlier.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8777.35, up by 93.50 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 8717.45 and 8778.80. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 7.05%, Bank of Baroda up by 4.87%, Larsen & Toubro up by 4.58%, Tata Power up by 4.11% and NMDC up by 3.97%. On the flip side, ITC down by 2.20%, BPCL down by 1.21%, Wipro down by 1.12%, GAIL India down by 1.08% and TCS down by 0.90% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Straits Times increased 0.59 points or 0.02% to 3,426.77, Shanghai Composite increased 6.92 points or 0.21% to 3,305.28, Nikkei 225 increased 12.15 points or 0.06% to 18,797.94 and Hang Seng increased 26.71 points or 0.11% to 24,928.77.

On the other hand, KOSPI Index decreased 7.28 points or 0.37% to 1,985.80, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 4.49 points or 0.25% to 1,816.38 and Jakarta Composite decreased 2.25 points or 0.04% to 5,449.17.

Taiwan Stock Exchange was closed on account of ‘Peace Memorial Day’ holiday.