Markets extend gains in noon deals; Nifty regains 8,150 mark

Buying intensified in noon deals on Dalal Street with frontline gauges regaining their crucial 8,150 (Nifty) and 26,900 (Sensex) levels as investors opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after three session of continuous drubbing. Sentiments turned up-beat after private forecasters bet on Indian Ocean to turnaround monsoon current. Some support also came with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement, who allaying concerns over the forecast of a rain deficient monsoon said that the effect won’t be as dire as the plummeting stock markets seemed to indicate. Appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 63.89 per dollar against the Thursday’s close of 64.00 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

Global cues remained sluggish with European counters making a weak start with CAC, DAX and FTS trading with a cut of around half a percent. Asian markets were trading mostly in the red as investor sentiment was dented by an impasse between Greece and its creditors. However, the main exception was China where stocks reached new highs after a week of roller-coaster action. Back home, on the sectoral front, metal, consumer durables and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while realty, auto and software remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE turned positive; there were 1434 shares on the gaining side against 912 shares on the losing side while 103 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26930.86, up by 117.44 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 26718.44 and 26991.82. 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 0.54%, while Small cap index gained 0.69%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.08%, Consumer Durables up by 1.43%, Capital Goods up by 1.25%, PSU up by 1.19% and FMCG up by 1.15%, while Realty down by 0.42%, Auto down by 0.22% and IT down by 0.19% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 4.60%, Sun Pharma up by 2.87%, GAIL India up by 2.66%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.61% and NTPC up by 1.61%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.03%, TCS down by 0.92%, HDFC down by 0.55%, Axis Bank down by 0.40% and ICICI Bank down by 0.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, undeterred by the recent slide in the stock markets that wiped of over 1000 points from Sensex in just two days, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government’s PSU disinvestment programme will continue as planned.  Government has set a target of Rs 69,500 crore from PSU disinvestment for the current fiscal. Of this, Rs 41,000 crore is to come from minority share sale in PSUs and Rs 28,500 crore from strategic stake sale.

Jaitley said that 'I don't read too much on daily movements as far as markets are concerned. By and large with the health of economy recovering, I see much greater stability as far as markets are concerned. And therefore, the disinvestment programme of the government will continue as it has been planned.'

There has been sharp sell-off in the equity markets on worries about the health of the economy after predictions of deficient monsoon and on concerns the central bank would no longer cut interest rates this year.

In the last fiscal the government’s disinvestment proceeds fell well short of the initially targeted amount of Rs.63,425 crore. This fiscal, though the disinvestment department has got approval from Cabinet for selling minority stakes worth about Rs 50,000 crore in a host of PSUs, but it has only been able to divest stake in one company -- REC -- so far this fiscal. The Cabinet has approved sale of 5 percent stakes in ONGC, BHEL and NTPC as well as 10 percent each in IOC, NALCO and NMDC.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8162.75, up by 32.10 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 8100.15 and 8181.95. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 4.36%, Sun Pharma up by 2.99%, Idea Cellular up by 2.67%, GAIL India up by 2.53% and NMDC up by 1.92%. On the flip side, ACC down by 2.28%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.16%, Tata Motors down by 1.80%, TCS down by 0.87% and Asian Paints down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng was down by 0.75%, Nikkei 225 lost 0.13%, Jakarta Composite declined by 0.24%, Taiwan Weighted lost 0.09%, KOSPI Index dipped by 0.23% and Straits Times was down by 0.35%. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 1.63% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.11%.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany's DAX dropped 0.87%, UK's FTSE declined 0.43% and France's CAC was down by 0.90%.