Benchmarks continue to trade in green in late morning session

Indian bourses continued to trade in green in late morning session on continued buying activities by both funds and retail investors. Sentiment on the street improved with Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao statement that the bank is looking to increase exposure in India, especially in infrastructure, skill development and urban services, and proposes to increase lending to the country by almost half to $12 billion by 2018. Besides, firm global cues coupled with the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar added to the optimistic sentiments. Some support also came with IMD statement that the rainfall was 5 per cent more than the normal limit until now. However, some investors will remain wary ahead of the outcome of the US Fed meet which ends later today. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 26,750 and 8,050 levels respectively, with gains of over 0.25%. Further, the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.75 percent each.

On global front, Asian Stocks rose for the first time this week amid speculation the Federal Reserve will signal a slow pace of monetary tightening at the end of its monthly meeting. Hang Seng was trading in green as Hong Kong lawmakers started debating a China-backed plan Wednesday for the first popular election of the chief executive, set for 2017. Back home, recovering from a 21-month low, the rupee strengthened by 10 paise to 64.16 against the US dollar in early trade on selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.

Back on street, stocks from FMCG, Consumer Durables and Realty counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Oil & Gas and Power counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, Shares of Tata Steel surged after trade unions decided to suspend industrial action at the steelmaker's UK plants. Furthermore, Jubilant Life Sciences rose after the company increased price of Vitamin B3 (Niacin & Niacinamide) by 10% with immediate effect.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2102 stocks traded, 1326 stocks advanced, while 664 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26794.07, up by 107.56 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 26728.89 and 26857.37. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.79%, while Small cap index up by 0.90%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.43%, Consumer Durables up by 0.82%, Realty up by 0.64%, TECK up by 0.55% and IT up by 0.48%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.26% and  Power down by 0.17% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 3.19%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.99%, Tata Steel up by 2.05%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.57% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.18%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.94%, BHEL down by 1.18%, Tata Power down by 0.74%, Tata Motors down by 0.56% and Reliance Industries down by 0.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Asian Development Bank (ADB) is looking to increase exposure in India, especially in infrastructure, skill development and urban services, and proposes to increase lending to the country by almost half to $12 billion by 2018 (from nearly $3 billion a year to $4 billion a year). ADB will focus on supporting the government’s new initiatives, including Make in India aimed at boosting manufacturing, Skill India aimed at training young people to enter job market.

ADB president Takehiko Nakao after a meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said that 'ADB aims at increasing its sovereign and non-sovereign lending from the present $7 billion-$9 billion in three years from 2015 to 2017 to $10 billion-$12 billion between 2016 and 2018 using ADB`s expanded lending capacity.' Nakao expressed support to initiatives such as Make in India, Skill India, Clean India and smart cities and said that the government might face some difficulties in carrying out reforms such as those related to labour, there is tremendous people's support for these initiatives to spur growth. ADB would assist the government in the smart cities project in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

India is ADB`s largest borrower, with 189 sovereign loans totalling $31.3 billion approved till date. ADB has also made 50 non-sovereign loans, equity investments, and guarantees totalling $3.6 billion. ADB had projected India to grow 7.8 per cent in the current financial year, higher than the 7.5 per cent predicted by other multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It would be announcing revised growth projections for the current fiscal year in July.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8070.90, up by 23.60 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 8048.95 and 8092.55. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 3.17%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.97%, Tata Steel up by 1.95%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.63% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.75%, BPCL down by 1.52%, BHEL down by 1.10%, Cairn India down by 0.99% and Tata Power down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in green; KOSPI Index up by 0.25%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 0.22%, Straits Times up by 1.04%, Jakarta Composite up by 1.33% and Hang Seng was up by 0.36%. On the flip side, Taiwan weighted down by 0.24%, Nikkei 225 down by 0.47% and Shanghai Composite down by 1.26%.