Benchmarks trade firm; Oil & Gas, Bankex lead

Indian equity markets added gains and are trading near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The 50-share index Nifty managed to reclaim the psychological level of 8,600. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas, Bankex and Auto sector stocks while selling was witnessed in TECK and IT sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Supreme Petrochem was locked at upper circuit limit touching 52-week high as investors cheered the company’s robust fourth quarter results announced yesterday. Aurobindo Pharma was trading in red on reports that the US drug regulator (USFDA) raised quality issues at Unit 12 manufacturing facility of the company.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red, while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,600 and 28,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1725:941 while 116 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28535.72, up by 353.58 points or 1.25% after trading in a range of 28070.91 and 28538.43. 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 1.18%, while Small cap index up by 0.84%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.21%, Bankex up by 1.63%, Auto up by 1.30%, PSU up by 1.12% and INFRA up by 1.11%, while TECK down by 0.22% and IT down by 0.20% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 3.72%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.65%, Sun Pharma up by 3.42%, Hindustan Unilever up by 3.14% and HDFC up by 2.68%.

On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.79%, TCS down by 1.28%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.15%, Infosys down by 0.69% and Vedanta down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha has said that the Government is not considering the formulation of a mechanism for the capping of economy and business class airfares, to curb the predatory pricing of passenger tickets by airlines.

The minister further added that air fares are not regulated by the Government. Airlines are free to fix tariff under the provision of Sub-rule (1) of Rule 135, Aircraft Rules 1937 having regard to relevant factors, including the cost of operation, characteristic of services, reasonable profit and the generally prevailing tariff.

Earlier, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had asked the DGCA to conduct a detailed study of airfares charged by domestic airlines on high-density routes during the past five years. For quite some time there have been calls from various quarters including from Members of Parliament, for some mechanism to control skyrocketing domestic airfares, especially for those who have to finalise their travel plans at short notice.

The government is completely rewriting the civil aviation policy and the Civil Aviation Ministry will soon put the revised draft to invite comments from public and other stakeholders.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8634.35, up by 104.90 points or 1.23% after trading in a range of 8498.65 and 8643.65. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 4.39%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.84%, Reliance Industries up by 3.53%, Hindustan Unilever up by 3.17% and Sun Pharma up by 3.13%.

On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.85%, Idea Cellular down by 2.22%, TCS down by 1.19%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.07% and Infosys down by 0.82% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 253.81 points or 0.99% to 25,282.62, Nikkei 225 decreased 248.3 points or 1.19% to 20,593.67, Taiwan Weighted decreased 87.26 points or 0.97% to 8,918.70, KOSPI Index decreased 18.89 points or 0.91% to 2,064.73, Straits Times decreased 9.46 points or 0.28% to 3,361.95 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 8.35 points or 0.48% to 1,727.84.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite increased 5.44 points or 0.11% to 4,875.29 and Shanghai Composite increased 8.37 points or 0.21% to 4,026.05.

The European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 50.05 points or 0.74% to 6,719.02, Germany’s DAX decreased 22.38 points or 0.19% to 11,582.42 and France’s CAC decreased 9.39 points or 0.18% to 5,097.18.