Benchmarks continue firm trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their trade in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Investors maintained optimistic approach ahead of the release of GDP data which is scheduled to be unveiled later in the day. Traders were seen piling position in Auto, Infra and TECK stocks while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables and Power sectors stocks. In scrip specific development, Adani Enterprises extended yesterday’s losses ahead of the demerger involving the company, Adani Power and Adani Port & Special Economic Zone. The stock will also be excluded from S&P BSE 100 index and would be replaced by Eicher Motors. Aurobindo Pharma was trading in green after the company announced bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,350 and 27,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1336:1146 while 132 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27688.69, up by 181.98 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 27467.23 and 27829.91. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.31%, while Small cap index up by 0.86%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.54%, INFRA up by 1.28%, TECK up by 0.94%, Oil & Gas up by 0.93% and Bankex up by 0.90% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.34% and Power down by 0.27% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 4.37%, Coal India up by 2.28%, GAIL India up by 2.13%, Sun Pharma up by 1.97% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.95%.

On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.52%, BHEL down by 1.17%, Hindalco down by 1.14%, ONGC down by 1.01% and HDFC down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a good news for the new airlines, the Civil Aviation Ministry would soon submit a draft note on the proposed changes in the controversial 5/20 norm to the Cabinet for approval. As per the present norms Indian carriers needs to be in operation for at least five years and have a fleet of 20 aircraft to be eligible to fly on international routes. By bringing in changes in the more than decade-old rule, the government seeks to address the imbalance between domestic and foreign carriers.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has however proposed a complicated formula replacing 5/20 norms, in which domestic flying credits would still be needed for new airlines to fly overseas. As per the proposed norms, a new airline would be eligible to apply for international operations once it has operated on domestic routes and deployed capacity equivalent to at least 200 domestic flying credits (DFCs). On reaching the 300 DFC milestone, the air carrier can approach the government for being designated on a long haul international route of more than 6 hours flying time. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju had earlier said that sooner the 5/20 rule was thrown out the better.

There is wide difference among the different players of the industry over change of rules as the Federation of Indian Airlines, which has IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and GoAir as its members has objected to any relaxations, while new entrants Vistara and AirAsia India strongly pitched for scrapping of the rule.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8387.40, up by 68.40 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 8305.70 and 8420.75. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 4.06%, Lupin up by 3.61%, BPCL up by 3.36%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.20% and Idea Cellular up by 3.04%.

On the flip side, NMDC down by 2.02%, PNB down by 1.79%, BHEL down by 1.54%, Vedanta down by 1.45% and Hindalco down by 0.91% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 30.12 points or 0.11% to 27,424.19, Straits Times decreased 26.54 points or 0.78% to 3,391.23, Jakarta Composite decreased 17.46 points or 0.33% to 5,219.95, Taiwan Weighted decreased 11.77 points or 0.12% to 9,701.07, Shanghai Composite decreased 8.52 points or 0.18% to 4,611.75 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 1.65 points or 0.09% to 1,753.91. On the other hand, KOSPI Index increased 3.91 points or 0.19% to 2,114.80 and Nikkei 225 increased 11.69 points or 0.06% to 20,563.15.

The European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 141.72 points or 1.21% to 11,535.85, France’s CAC decreased 52.53 points or 1.02% to 5,085.30 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 21.54 points or 0.31% to 7,019.38.