Benchmarks make a good start magnifying previous session gains

Magnifying their previous session gains, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap up start taking positive cues from other Asian markets. The sentiments got a boost on reports that Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 407.69 crore July 15, 2015, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Further, some support also come with the statement of Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, that International oil prices will come down with the imminent lifting of sanctions against Iran and benefit India.  At present, both Sensex and Nifty are trading above the crucial 28,300 and 8,550 levels respectively, with gains of above half a percent. Apart from blue chips, broader indices too were equally participating in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by 0.55%. In scrip specific development, VA Tech Wabag was trading higher after the company won orders worth over Rs 1,000 crore during April-June (Q1) quarter.

On the global front, the US markets ended marginally lower following reports of violent protests in Greece. Asian markets were trading mostly in green after Greece approved austerity measures to secure a bailout and potentially avoid an exit from the eurozone.

Back home, all the sectoral indices are trading in the positive terrain, led by Oil & Gas, Bankex, PSU, Metal and Consumer Durables. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1234: 556 while 74 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28341.58, up by 143.29 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 28245.81 and 28353.98. There were 22 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.67%, while Small cap index added 0.55%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.87%, Bankex up by 0.83%, PSU up by 0.73%, Metal up by 0.66% and Consumer Durables up by 0.61%. while there were no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.25%, Tata Steel up by 1.21%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.05%, Coal India up by 0.99% and HDFC up by 0.95%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.53%, Cipla down by 0.40%, GAIL India down by 0.37%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.13% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, admitting that the condition of farmers is a “matter of concern”, has said the Centre was planning to spend Rs 50,000 crore on the farming and irrigation sector and plans were also afoot to roll out an insurance scheme exclusively for the farming sector to compensate for crop loss. The finance minister while noting that the agriculture sector presents its own set of challenges with successive low rate of growth over the years, also admitted that 'We have been unable to ensure even a 4 per cent growth consistently in the field of agriculture.'

Jaitley further stated that with productivity levels reasonably low and 85 per cent farmers being small and marginal, the agriculture sector is afflicted by higher input costs, low level of irrigation, high indebtedness, absence of an effective insurance mechanism and adverse impacts of climate change.Talking about insurance, Jaitley said that the present crop insurance schemes cover only the loans which a farmer has taken from banks and the condition of farmers is a matter of concern...”We are working on the next challenge wherein if farmer's crop gets damaged, he will automatically get insurance amount for the crop loss while sitting at his home. We are bringing an insurance scheme only for the farming sector.”

Earlier the Finance Minister had stated that Ashok Gulati, Infosys Chair Professor for Agriculture, ICRIER (Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations), had made a presentation to the government on a 'doable and effective' insurance programme, under which the farmer is able to at least recover the basic inputs in the event of uncertainty caused by more than one reason.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8568.50, up by 44.70 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 8542.90 and 8570.60. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.38%, BPCL up by 1.88%, Yes Bank up by 1.57%, Asian Paints up by 1.22% and Tata Steel up by 1.16%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 0.51%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.50%, Ambuja Cement down by 0.39%, NMDC down by 0.35% and GAIL India down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 5.25 points or 0.25% to 2,078.16, Taiwan Weighted increased 6.64 points or 0.07% to 9,060.84, Straits Times increased 9.56 points or 0.29% to 3,348.42, Hang Seng increased 15.56 points or 0.06% to 25,071.32, Shanghai Composite increased 37.65 points or 0.99% to 3,843.35 and Nikkei 225 increased 104.2 points or 0.51% to 20,567.53.

On flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 31.96 points or 0.65% to 4,869.85 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.66 points or 0.1% to 1,725.60.