Benchmarks remain boisterous on sustained buying activities

Benchmark equity indices continued showing boisterous move on sustained buying activities by both funds and retail investors, encouraged by Strong US job data along with reports suggesting Finance Ministry contemplating on announcing more steps to sting out MAT row. Going from strength to strength, both Sensex and Nifty were trading at day’s high point of 27,450 and 8300 levels respectively, with gains of over one percent. Meanwhile, buying activity was witnessed in broader counterparts, with both Midcap and Small cap index trading with gains in the range of 1.25-1.70%.

On the global front, Asian shares rose on Monday as investors cheered China’s latest cut to interest rates to bolster its flagging economy and after Wall-street rallied on a robust headline reading for US employment. European shares got off to a negative start, with all eyes on meeting of Euro-group of euro zone finance ministers amidst Greece's government hopes that they will note progress on Athens' talks with lenders. The ministers have ruled out unlocking aid for Greece at the meeting, saying that too many issues with the debt-laden country remain unresolved.

Closer home, with across the board buying activities, gains at Dalal Street was led by shares of Metal, banking and Public Sector Undertaking counters. Shares of all PSU stocks turned euphoric after PNB reported its Q4 earnings, which took its stocks higher with gains of over 10%. India's second-biggest state-owned bank, Bank of Baroda too showed improvement with gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans at 3.72 percent, compared with 3.85 percent in the previous quarter, sending its shares up more than 11%.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27461.72, up by 356.33 points or 1.31% after trading in a range of 27231.28 and 27508.30. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.70%, while Small cap index was up by 1.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.04%, Bankex up by 2.05%, PSU up by 2.03%, Auto up by 2.02%, Realty up by 1.57%

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 4.47%, Hindalco up by 4.17%, Vedanta up by 4.17%, Tata Steel up by 3.55% and Hero MotoCorp up by 3.42%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.19%, Reliance Industries down by 0.56% and Wipro down by 0.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a startling revelation the comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in a report, tabled in Parliament last week has said that no significant investment was made in the fertiliser sector during 2010-14 period even after the launch of Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme to promote the domestic industry. The NBS regime was introduced in April 2010.

CAG in its performance audit on ‘Nutrient Based Subsidy Policy for Decontrolled Phosphatic & Potassic Fertilisers’ said that during the period no significant investment was made in the fertiliser sector to increase either the number of fertiliser plants or their installed capacity of these fertiliser plants during 2010-11 to 2013-14.

It added that though the number of plants remained the same even in 2013-14, installed capacity increased marginally by 10.33 lakh tonne (LT) and 8.49 LT for DAP and complex fertiliser, respectively, during that year. During 2009-10 to 2013-14, the number of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) plants were static at 13, while that of complex fertilisers remained at 21.

CAG report also stated that actual production fell by 14 percent during the period 2009-10 to 2013-14, while production of complex fertiliser declined by 14 percent during 2009-10 to 2013-14, as it fell from 80.38 LT in 2009-10 to 69.13 LT during 2013-14. It added that there was no incentive for the companies to import raw material or intermediaries and produce finished goods, fertiliser companies preferred to import the finished product. CAG has recommended that DoF should take measures to encourage and enhance investment in the fertiliser sector in close coordination with Ministry of Finance. It also recommended early adoption of a result oriented approach to promote growth of domestic production of P&K fertilizers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8304.90, up by 113.40 points or 1.38% after trading in a range of 8224.65 and 8315.80. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 16.26%, SBI up by 4.50%, Hindalco up by 4.43%, Vedanta up by 4.40% and Hero MotoCorp up by 3.49%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.26%, Reliance Industries down by 0.56%, BPCL down by 0.19%, Lupin down by 0.07% and Wipro down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; with FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading higher by 3.2 points or 0.18% to 1,810.85; Jakarta Composite trading higher by 4.29 points or 0.08% to 5,186.50; KOSPI Index trading higher by 11.86 points or 0.57% to 2,097.38; Straits Times trading higher by 13.95 points or 0.4% to 3,465.96; Shanghai Composite trading higher by 113.32 points or 2.69% to 4,319.24; Hang Seng trading higher by 204.6 points or 0.74% to 27,781.94 and Nikkei 225 trading higher by 241.72 points or 1.25% to 19,620.91.On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted down by 28.28 points or 0.29% to 9,663.72 was the lone loser amongst Asian pack.

European markets got off to a negative start; with France’s CAC down by 47.37 points or 0.93% to 5,043.02; Germany’s DAX down by 36.39 points or 0.31% to 11,673.34 and UK’s FTSE 100 down by 18.04 points or 0.26% to 7,028.78.