Benchmarks magnify gains; Nifty above 8250 mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended early gains to continue firm trade in late morning session, hovering near intra-day high level on the back of strong rally in select index heavy-weights like - metal, realty, pharma, auto and bank. Besides, a firm trend in other Asian markets following China’s move to cut interest rates for the third time in six months and a solid US jobs report boosted the market sentiment. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 27,350 and 8,250 levels respectively, with gains of about a percentage point.  Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by 1.27% and 1.10% respectively. Sentiment got a boost with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that India's economy grew an estimated 7-7.5 percent last fiscal year and will keep growing this year, but the government will have to invest more in agriculture to keep up the momentum. However, some traders remained cautious with the industry body ASSOCHAM paper stating that Indian basket of crude oil rising by 11 per cent in rupee terms in the last 8-9 days, volatility in energy prices has re-surfaced as the biggest worry for the Indian industry and the policy makers. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 437.56 crore during the previous trading session on May 08, 2015.

On global front, Asian stocks rose after China's central bank cut interest rates for the third time in six months, hoping to reinvigorate waning growth in the world's No. 2 economy. Furthermore, the U.S. stock market ended last week with its best day in two months on good news about the job market. Back home, Indian rupee strengthened 13 paise at 63.81 against the US dollar in early trade on continued selling of the American currency by exporters.

Back on street, barring consumer durables, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading significantly in the green. Among them, Metal index was the star-performer and was up 2.72 per cent, followed by auto 1.83 per cent, Realty 1.35 per cent and Banking 0.93 per cent, while consumer durables index was down 0.15 per cent. In scrip specific development, Shares of Nucleus Software Exports have surged after the company reported a strong 63% quarter-on-quarter growth in operating profit at Rs 24.75 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2015. Further, Relaxo Footwears surged after its board recommended issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 i.e. one share for every share held.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2052 stocks traded, 1449 stocks advanced, while 523 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27377.79, up by 272.40 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 27231.28 and 27390.30. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 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 1.10%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.72%, Auto up by 1.83%, Realty up by 1.35%, Bankex up by 0.93% and Infrastructure up by 0.93%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.15% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.69%, Hindalco up by 3.60%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.98%, Tata Steel up by 2.98% and Coal India up by 2.41%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.93%, Reliance Industries down by 0.33%, HDFC Bank down by 0.17% and Wipro down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressing his confidence in the Indian growth story has said that India’s economy grew an estimated 7-7.5 percent last fiscal year and will keep growing this year, but the government will have to invest more in agriculture to keep up the momentum.

The Finance Minister further emphasized that the country’s potential is not 7 or 8 percent but the agriculture sector was the biggest challenge for the government and that recent unseasonal rains have created an agrarian crisis. Once the resources with government grow, the biggest component of this will be diverted to agriculture and irrigation.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that he foresees the second Green Revolution taking place in eastern Indian states as they have abundant resources and need to develop their economy. He said with eastern India accounting for the major share of India's natural resources besides availability of optimal manpower, states in the region are in the best position to usher in the second Green Revolution, which will trigger a series of developmental activities in the region.

Many parts of the country, including major farm producing states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, were hit by unseasonal rains in March, just as the winter crop was ready for harvest. Not only this, the Met office has also predicted for a lower-than-normal monsoons for this season, which can affect the summer crops in the rain-fed country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8269.35, up by 77.85 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 8224.65 and 8273.50. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.90%, Hindalco up by 3.78%, Tata Steel up by 2.99%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.88% and Bajaj Auto up by 2.42%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.13%, Lupin down by 1.49%, PNB down by 1.27%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.51% and Reliance Industries down by 0.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.19%, Jakarta Composite rose 0.09%, Straits Times gained 0.42%, KOSPI Index advanced 0.87%, Shanghai Composite surged 1.18%, Hang Seng added 0.5% and Nikkei 225 surged 1.18%.  On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.15%.