Benchmarks add gains; Oil & Gas leads

Indian equity markets added gains to continue their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on optimistic note after government reported that it has contained the fiscal deficit at 4 percent of GDP for 2014-15 at Rs 5,01,880 crore, bettering its own financial targets it had inherited (4.1 percent). Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas, Consumer Durable and Infra stocks while selling was witnessed in Realty sector. In scrip specific development, Jain Irrigation Systems was trading firm after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 98.5 crore for the quarter ended March 2015 (Q4) against Rs 75.3 crore in the year-ago quarter. Indraprastha Gas was trading in green after the company increased the selling price of compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG) in Delhi-NCR.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,300 and 27,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1522:1026 while 126 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27507.28, up by 183.28 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 27370.28 and 27541.18. 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 0.58%, while Small cap index up by 0.75%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.80%, Consumer Durables up by 1.42%, INFRA up by 1.03%, FMCG up by 0.87% and Bankex up by 0.74% while, Realty down by 0.47% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.63%, Tata Power up by 2.60%, GAIL India up by 2.44%, Reliance Industries up by 1.54% and HDFC Bank up by 1.37%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 0.72%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.44%, Coal India down by 0.36%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.27% and Cipla down by 0.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, outlining the economic road map of the Modi led government for its second year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, unveiled that reasonable taxation environment and improving the ease of doing business were among top priorities of his government going ahead. He also asserted that his government would strive hard to eliminate discretions and maintain the speed of reforms.

The government, which came to power in May last year plans to roll out a common goods and services tax (GST) by April 1, 2015, and bring down corporate tax rate to 25% from 30% over a period of four years. It also intends to eliminate the exemptions while reducing the rate of corporate tax, though these would be retained for the individual taxpayers.

Finance Minister also asserted that in order to boost private investments and improve execution of projects, the government’s effort would be to replace the practice of giving permissions and push pending legislations such as GST and land acquisition bill.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8325.50, up by 63.15 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 8271.95 and 8333.25. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 3.34%, Asian Paints up by 3.28%, BPCL up by 2.95%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.81% and Ultratech Cement up by 2.80%.

On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.65%, IDFC down by 0.99%, Tata Motors down by 0.88%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.64% and Coal India down by 0.57% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 2.24 points or 0.04% to 5,229.34, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.95 points or 0.16% to 1,814.87, KOSPI Index increased 7.22 points or 0.34% to 2,113.72, Taiwan Weighted increased 26.62 points or 0.28% to 9,606.10 and Nikkei 225 increased 157.35 points or 0.8% to 19,890.27.

On the other hand, Hang Seng decreased 231.03 points or 0.83% to 27,591.25, Shanghai Composite decreased 25.2 points or 0.58% to 4,283.49 and Straits Times decreased 5.04 points or 0.15% to 3,458.06.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 5.8 points or 0.12% to 4,999.62, Germany’s DAX increased 87.46 points or 0.76% to 11,534.49 and UK’s FTSE 100 increased 17.18 points or 0.25% to 6,977.67.