Market surges to high point of the day powered by banking stocks

Strengthening further markets were trading near the highs of the day in early noon session. Across the board buying by the marketmen has helped both the benchmarks reclaim their crucial psychological levels of 28000 (Sensex) and 8450 (Nifty). Traders were getting some advantage with the government’s decision to liberalise foreign direct investment norms for NRIs and overseas citizens of India (OCI) as it aims to increase capital flows into the country. The strength in rupee against dollar too was aiding the market momentum to some extent. There were expectation of some good earnings that was keeping the markets in high spirit and the blue-chips like SBI, ITC, ONGC, ICICI Bank and Coal India were propelling the markets higher. There was some buzz in the upstream oil companies after the oil ministry set interim rules that exempt state-run upstream companies from giving any discount on crude and refined fuel sales if global oil prices average up to $60 a barrel this quarter. ONGC and GAIL (India) was up by around a percent each. On sectoral front, while there were no losers, banking PSU and FMCG were powering the markets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28015.97, up by 206.62 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 27828.61 and 28018.34. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were going neck-in-neck to the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.59%, while Small cap index gained 0.62%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.06%, PSU up by 0.89%, FMCG up by 0.75%, Capital Goods up by 0.73%, Consumer Durables up by 0.58%

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.97%, HDFC up by 1.81%, TCS up by 1.59%, Sun Pharma Inds up by 1.43% and ICICI Bank up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.29%, Wipro down by 1.16%, Vedanta down by 1.08%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.79% and Hindalco down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the government will consider repealing the 51 percent FDI policy in multi-brand retail, while no proposal would be entertained for opening supermarkets in India by foreign players. The union cabinet minister has said that “I will go back to the Cabinet and say should we delete one document...I am not going to entertain any proposal in multi-brand retail.” She also said 'we will ensure FDI in e-commerce does not become a back door for FDI into multi-brand retail'.

Recently, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in its consolidated FDI policy retained the previous UPA government's decision to allow foreign retailers to open multi-brand stores with 51 percent ownership. Though, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the BJP was 'never' in favour of allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and a recent government notification only published the extant policy on it.

The ruling BJP during its poll campaign had said that “Barring the multi-brand retail sector, FDI will be allowed in sectors wherever needed for job and asset creation, infrastructure and acquisition of niche technology and specialised expertise.”

On the contrary Arvind Subramanian, the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry had said that though it’s a political call but as a purely technical and economic analysis, it is a desirable way to proceed.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8472.05, up by 51.05 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 8420.60 and 8474.65. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 2.65%, Bank Of Baroda up by 2.17%, IDFC up by 2.01%, PNB up by 1.81% and HDFC up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 2.46%, Vedanta down by 1.44%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.23%, Wipro down by 1.19% and Hindalco down by 1.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Straits Times was up by 12 points or 0.35% to 3,451.86, KOSPI Index gained 23.29 points or 1.1% to 2,146.10, Taiwan Weighted was higher by 60.24 points or 0.63% to 9,638.80, Nikkei 225 gained 61.54 points or 0.3% to 20,264.41, Shanghai Composite surged by 104.83 points or 2.31% to 4,634.25 and Hang Seng zoomed by 441.35 points or 1.6% to 27,965.07.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite lost 5.56 points or 0.1% to 5,307.65 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined by 3.14 points or 0.17% to 1,791.90.