Markets escalate to day’s high after presentation of optimistic economic survey 2015

Going from strength to strength, local equity markets have now escalated to day’s high point on sustained buying activities by funds and retail investors on first trading session of new F&O series despite negative global set-up. Much of momentum was witnessed by bourses after presentation of Economic Survey, which estimated economic growth between 8.1% and 8.5% in 2015-16 and announced the scope of big bang reforms in the budget, which is to be tabled in parliament on February 28, 2015. Sentiments were also buttressed after survey suggested that the government’s fiscal deficit of 4.1% for FY15 of likely being achieved by the economy. At day’s high, both Sensex and Nifty were trading higher above psychologically crucial 29,100 and 8,800 levels respectively, with gains of over 1.25%. Meanwhile, broader indices also surged at par with frontline indices and were trading with gains of over 1.25%.

On the global front, Asian shares pulled further away from a five-month high as a sharp pullback in crude oil prices dampened risk appetite, though Japanese stocks crawled to a fresh 15-year peak after the dollar surged against the yen overnight. Meanwhile, European stocks taking a breather from their sharp two-month rally were trading lower on incremental profit-booking activities.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, however stocks from FMCG counter were the sole losers. On the flip side, much of the buying activity was witnessed by stocks from Realty, Capital Goods and Metal counters. Meanwhile, in other stocks specific activity, shares of defence equipment makers rose on expectations of increase in budgetary allocation to defence sector in Union Budget 2015-16 tomorrow, 28 February 2015. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1709:1055; while 113 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29133.36, up by 386.71 points or 1.35% after trading in a range of 28837.06 and 29191.95. 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 1.48%, while Small cap index up by 1.28%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 4.00%, Capital Goods up by 3.42%, Metal up by 2.69%, Power up by 2.48%, Bankex up by 2.41% while, FMCG down by 0.89% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 5.74%, Larsen & Toubro up by 4.35%, ICICI Bank up by 3.59%, SBI up by 3.44% and Sesa Sterlite up by 3.36%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.49%, GAIL India down by 1.26%, Wipro down by 0.73%, TCS down by 0.47% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s per capita income, a gauge for assessing standard of living, rose by 37.6 per cent to Rs. 88,533 in the last four years to 2014-15. Compared with 2013-14, national income and per capita income at current prices during 2014-15 are estimated to have grown by 11.5 per cent and 10.1 per cent, respectively,

Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation V K Singh replying to a query in the Rajya Sabha said that the per capita income was at Rs 64,316 in 2011-12; Rs. 71,593 in 2012-13; Rs. 80,388 in 2013-14 and Rs. 88,533 in the year 2014-15.

The national income in 2014-15 stood at Rs. 11,217,079 crore; Rs 10,056,523 crore in 2013-14; Rs 8,841,733 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 7,846,531 crore in 2011-12. Recently, the government made changes in the national accounts calculation methodology by revising the base year to 2011-12 from 2004-05, accordingly India's per capita income, for 2013-14 was increased at Rs 6,699 per month for 2013-14 as against the earlier estimate of Rs 6,198.33. In 2012-13 and 2011-12, the per capita income per month was estimated at Rs 5,966.08 and Rs 5,359.67 respectively. To estimate the per capita income and per capita PFCE, the government used the population projections data on the basis of Census 2011.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8810.05, up by 126.20 points or 1.45% after trading in a range of 8717.45 and 8830.65. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Power up by 5.26%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 5.02%, Bank Of Baroda up by 4.87%, NMDC up by 4.59% and Larsen & Toubro up by 4.50%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.60%, GAIL India down by 1.20%, Wipro down by 1.04%, BPCL down by 0.96% and TCS down by 0.53% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; with FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading higher by 2.64 points or 0.14% to 1,823.51; Jakarta Composite trading higher by 4.22 points or 0.08% to 5,455.64;  Shanghai Composite trading higher by 11.95 points or 0.36% to 3,310.30 and Nikkei 225 trading higher by 12.15 points or 0.06% to 18,797.94.

On the flip side, Hang Seng trading lower by 78.77 points or 0.32% to 24,823.29; Taiwan Weighted trading lower by 77.44 points or 0.8% to 9,622.10; Straits Times trading lower by 9.29 points or 0.27% to 3,416.89 and KOSPI Index trading lower by 7.28 points or 0.37% to 1,985.80

European markets were reeling under pressure; Germany’s DAX trading lower by 2.9 points or 0.03% to 11,324.29; France’s CAC trading lower by 1.66 points or 0.03% to 4,908.96 and  UK’s FTSE 100 trading lower by 1.42 points or 0.02% to 6,948.31.