Markets steadily moves higher; Sensex above 27300

Indian markets are not showing any signs of giving up and steadily moving northward were near the high points of the day in early noon session on Friday. Marketmen were encouraged by the good progress in monsoon and hopes that inflation will remain in control, subsequently helping the Reserve Bank of India to go for more rate cuts. Traders were lapping up all the beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks expecting continuity in bullish trend. The continued strength in rupee too was impacting positively to the market sentiments after the Federal Reserve refrained from providing any specific time for raising interest rates. The gains in benchmarks were boosted by the rally in heavyweight Reliance Industries which has gained around 11 per cent in last 6 days and was now trading comfortably above its 200 day moving average, near triple digit mark. On sectoral front, barring mild profit taking in the realty and power, all other indices were trading with good gains, led by oil & gas and capital goods.

In other scrip specific movement, Essar Oil fell nearly 4 per cent after hitting its 52-week high in early trade on report that Russian oil giant Rosneft's talks to buy a stake in the Essar Group company has hit a roadblock over valuations.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27311.12, up by 195.29 points or 0.72% after trading in a range of 27202.38 and 27350.56. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.69%, while Small cap index added 0.56%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.04%, Metal up by 0.83%, Capital Goods up by 0.79%, PSU up by 0.69%, FMCG up by 0.68%, while Power down by 0.09%, Realty down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.85%, HDFC up by 2.08%, ONGC up by 2.08%, Wipro up by 1.81% and Hindalco up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.13%, BHEL down by 0.68%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.64%, Tata Power down by 0.34% and NTPC down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi after reviewing the progress of UID and DBT in a high-level meeting has called for accelerating the delivery of benefits and expanding the applications of the Aadhaar (UID) platform. He also directed the strengthening of the institutional mechanism related with Aadhaar and DBT, using a portion of the savings being achieved.

The high level meeting was attended by the Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Ministers of State in the Finance and Home Ministries, Jayant Sinha and Haribhai Chaudhary, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, and senior officials from various ministries. Prime Minister directed the concerned officials to identify such applications where concrete results can be achieved in next two months.

During the meeting, PM was apprised about the current status of Aadhaar enrollment and the direct transfer of benefits in various sectors and was informed that a total of 14 to 15 percent savings are being achieved in LPG subsidy alone, as a result of elimination of leakages, and de-duplication.

The Prime Minister on his part asked the concerned officers to examine the possibility of incentivising states through a one-time sharing of a portion of the savings, as a result of successful implementation of DBT schemes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8226.35, up by 51.75 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 8195.65 and 8235.50. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.78%, ONGC up by 2.19%, HDFC up by 1.92%, Wipro up by 1.87% and Hindalco up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corpn. down by 1.34%, Tata Motors down by 1.22%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.10%, BHEL down by 0.84% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Straits Times was up by 4.51 points or 0.14% to 3,304.93, KOSPI Index gained 5.08 points or 0.25% to 2,046.96, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 6.14 points or 0.36% to 1,724.26, Jakarta Composite added 38.27 points or 0.77% to 4,983.77, Nikkei 225 moved up by183.42 points or 0.92% to 20,174.24, Hang Seng surged by 259.33 points or 0.97% to 26,953.99.

On the flip side Shanghai Composite declined by 147.61 points or 3.08% to 4,637.75.