Markets shows steady trade; Nifty manages to hold 8400 mark

Markets are holding up their gains in the early noon session with no signs of series volatility, though there was intermittent profit taking that was taking the benchmarks slightly lower from their high points of the day but the Sensex seems to have found strong support near 27880 levels and Nifty near the 2380 mark. The sign of smooth rollover in the next series is indicating traders’ conviction in the market. Marketmen were getting support of the good going in the Asian markets with Japan's Nikkei surging to the highest level since 1996 on signs of a pickup in economic growth, earnings optimism and hopes that Greece will avoid a debt default.

On the sectoral front, the underperforming IT pack was moving higher after the rupee continued to depreciate against dollar for the second straight session, due to rise in greenback against other currencies overseas. The non sectoral gauge of aviation too was on high spirit on reports that the ministry of civil aviation is looking for possible ways to reduce the tax burden on the aviation industry. Jet Airways was up by over 4 percent and Spicejet was up by over 3 percent.  In other scrip specific movement, Hindustan Unilever surged by around 3 percent on report that the company may consider acquiring Kerala-based ayurvedic hair and skin care brand Indulekha for Rs 500 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27888.07, up by 83.70 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 27784.44 and 27920.60. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too have added some gains; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.19%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.91%, Realty up by 0.48%, Power up by 0.35%, Bankex up by 0.25%, Consumer Durables up by 0.25%, while, Auto down by 0.34%, INFRA down by 0.33%, Metal down by 0.23% and Oil & Gas down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.91%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.74%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.91%, Lupin up by 1.57% and Wipro up by 1.06%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.60%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.21%, Tata Steel down by 0.96%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.68% and GAIL India down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Power and Coal (independent charge), Piyush Goyal has said that all the coal blocks in the country will become operational in the next couple of months. The minister replying to a query on why several coal blocks in Chhattisgarh, including some allotted in the latest auction, were idle said that he had discussed in detail what operational difficulties the winners of the recent coal block auction had and accordingly set up a coal monitoring portal, in which all the allotees were asked to register and flag difficulties faced by them.

Goyal added that centre, through the coal ministry, is monitoring all these blocks and their difficulties and coal secretary would personally visit the states including Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh to review the position of each mine. In next couple of months all the mines will be operational.

Meanwhile, in a related development the Centre has so far transferred the environment clearance (EC) of 19 coal blocks out of approved 29 mines from the earlier allottees to the new successful bidders. In a bid to expedite operations from the recently allocated coal mines, the Environment Ministry had amended EC norms after a request made by the Coal Ministry to facilitate transfer of ECs to successful coal bidders

The EC norms were eased as new coal block allottees feared that old allottees would create problems in transferring EC with no objection nod, thus delaying the commencement of mining operations. The Centre has auctioned 29 blocks in two phases to different companies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8401.50, up by 19.95 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 8376.10 and 8414.30. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 3.36%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.60%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.43%, Sun Pharma Industries up by 1.82% and  Lupin up by 1.73%. On the flip side, PNB down by 1.89%, Hindalco down by 1.85%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.68%, Bank Of Baroda down by 1.60% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.26% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green, barring FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI which was tad lower by 0.69 points or 0.04% to 1,726.17.

On the other hand, KOSPI Index was up by 4.33 points or 0.21% to 2,085.53, Taiwan Weighted gained 6.17 points or 0.07% to 9,397.31, Straits Times was higher by 9.59 points or 0.29% to 3,349.37, Jakarta Composite added 25.09 points or 0.51% to 4,962.74, Hang Seng was up by 43.08 points or 0.16% to 27,376.54, Nikkei 225 gained 58.61 points or 0.28% to 20,868.03 and Shanghai Composite surged by 63.99 points or 1.4% to 4,640.48.