Benchmarks trade in fine fettle; nifty inches up near 8100 level

After falling for last many sessions, Indian benchmarks have made a positive opening and are trading in fine fettle with the gains of around one percent on the back of positive Asian cues along with strong buying among financial shares. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 26,700 and 8,050 levels respectively. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too participated in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by 1.17% and 1.04% respectively. Sentiment got some support with Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu stating that the Government will invest Rs. 8.5 lakh crore over the next five years to develop the nation's railway services. However, there was some cautiousness too on reports that foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 645.02 crore on June 9, 2015 as per provisional stock exchange data.

In scrip specific development, PVR was trading higher after the company agreed to buy DT Cinemas, a wholly owned subsidiary of DLF, for Rs 500 crore.  Nestle too was trading higher after Singapore's food regulator declared Maggi noodles imported from India to be free from health risks.

On the global front, the US markets closed flat as investors eyed a recovery in bond yields and economic indicators that could shed light on the timing of a rate hike. Asian markets were mostly trading in green.

Back home traders were seen piling position in Capital Goods, Realty, Consumer Durables, INFRA and Healthcare. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1282: 420, while 53 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26732.86, up by 251.61 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 26493.29 and 26769.50. 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 1.17%, while Small cap index was higher by 1.04%.The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.76%, Realty up by 1.63%, Consumer Durables up by 1.44%, INFRA up by 1.25% and Healthcare up by 1.24%, while there were no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.34%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.02%, ICICI Bank up by 1.79%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.79% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.66%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 0.90%, Tata Steel down by 0.69% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has kick started the process of auctioning 10 coal blocks in the third tranche, inviting bids from companies engaged in sectors like steel, cement and captive power generation. The government has directed the nominated authority to undertake the auction of schedule II & III coal mines to eligible companies. Of the total estimated geological reserves of 858.19 million tones, the mines are having extractable coal of about 356.245 million tonnes and are located in Maharashtra, MP, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Two mines will be auctioned under schedule II category (producing) mines, while in the schedule III (ready to produce) eight mines will be put on offer. The two mines in schedule II category are MarkiMangli-I mine in Maharashtra and Parbatpur-Central mine in Jharkhand. Both are explored blocks having extractable reserves of 62.12 million tonnes.The eight mines in the schedule III category are Dongri Tal-II mine (Madhya Pradesh), KosarDongergaon (Maharashtra), Margi Mangli-IV (Maharashtra), Majra (Maharashtra), Chitarpur (Jharkhand), Bhaskarpara (Chhattisgarh), Sondiha (Chhattisgarh) and Jamkhani (Odisha). 

The government has so far auctioned 29 coal blocks in two tranches to private companies and garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore. The Supreme Court in September last year had cancelled allocation of 204 coal mines allocated to companies without auction.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8093.50, up by 71.10 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 8023.80 and 8109.05. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 2.22%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.13%, Cairn India up by 2.05%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.98% and Indusind Bank up by 1.86%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.04%, Tata Steel down by 0.84%, NMDC down by 0.66%, BPCL down by 0.41% and Ambuja Cement down by 0.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 6.48 points or 0.37% to 1,735.53, Straits Times increased 36.36 points or 1.1% to 3,331.49, Hang Seng increased 53.42 points or 0.2% to 27,042.94, Jakarta Composite increased 65.83 points or 1.34% to 4,965.71, Taiwan Weighted increased 138.73 points or 1.51% to 9,330.60 and Nikkei 225 increased 147.96 points or 0.74% to 20,244.26.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 22.83 points or 0.45% to 5,090.71 and KOSPI Index lost 2.99 points or 0.14% to 2,061.04.