Benchmarks magnify gains; Sensex recaptures 28,000 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued to break psychological levels one after other and were trading jubilantly in noon deals, breaching their crucial 28,000 (Sensex) and 8,500 (Nifty) bastions amid firm global cues. Barometer gauges managed to fervently gain from strength to strength as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong but oversold stocks. Sentiments remained up-beat on reform hopes after the cabinet gave approval to incorporation of changes in the GST bill as suggested by the Rajya Sabha select committee. Better than expected numbers from ICICI Bank too aided sentiments. The bank has reported 12.08% rise in its net profit at Rs 2976.16 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 as compared to Rs 2655.30 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

Firm opening in European counters too supported the sentiments, CAC, DAX and FTSE all were trading in green in early deals. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time on a healthy batch of economic growth data out of the United States but Shanghai sank again after the previous day's sell-off. Back home, rate sensitive stocks remained on buyers’ radar ahead of the RBI monetary policy as the decline in crude prices, advancement of monsoon and neutral stance by the Federal Reserve have raised hopes of rate cut. On the sectoral front, realty, auto and healthcare witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while power remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,625 shares on the gaining side against 945 shares on the losing side while 104 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28030.78, up by 325.43 points or 1.17% after trading in a range of 27814.51 and 28064.42. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.20%, while Small cap index up by 0.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.01%, Auto up by 1.64%, Healthcare up by 1.63%, Bankex up by 1.53% and Metal up by 1.19%, while Power down by 0.07% was the lone losing inde on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 5.74%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.47%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.35%, Lupin up by 3.20% and SBI up by 2.96%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.24%, HDFC Bank down by 0.21%, Reliance Industries down by 0.16% and NTPC down by 0.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, World Bank has decided not to invest in any coal-related project, be it a coal mine or a thermal power plant. Rachel Kyte, the World Bank climate change envoy, said that continued use of coal was exacting a heavy cost on some of the world's poorest countries, in local health impacts as well as climate change, which is imposing even graver consequences on the developing world

The World Bank stopped funding new coal projects except in “rare circumstances” three years ago after the US, Britain and the Netherlands opposed its decision to finance a new coal-fired power plant in South Africa. It has said that the World Bank Group will only in 'rare circumstances' provide financial support for new greenfield coal power generation projects; these 'rare circumstances' refer to considerations such as the country in question having no other feasible alternatives to meet the basic energy needs of its people.

The global organization had said that coal was no cure for global poverty, rejecting a main industry argument for building new fossil fuel projects in developing countries. Rachel Kyte has said that “ We need to extend access to energy to the poor and we need to do it the cleanest way possible because the social costs of coal are uncounted and damaging, just as the global emissions count is damaging as well.”

Seventeen years ago the World Bank had termed coal as the backbone of the India's energy economy and agreed to lend $1.03 billion to Coal India (CIL) along with a Japanese lending agency, for taking up 24 coal mining projects under CILs subsidiary Northern Coalfields, with global sourcing of equipment.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8507.30, up by 85.50 points or 1.02% after trading in a range of 8448.00 and 8518.80. There were 37 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 5.33%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.03%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.83%, Lupin up by 3.21% and SBI up by 3.00%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.78%, BPCL down by 1.35%, BHEL down by 0.98%, PNB down by 0.96% and NMDC down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 11.13 points or 0.55% to 2,030.16, Taiwan Weighted gained 13.85 points or 0.16% to 8,665.34, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged 14.71 points or 0.87% to 1,714.63, Nikkei 225 rose 62.41 points or 0.3% to 20,585.24 and Jakarta Composite was up by 62.6 points or 1.33% to 4,775.09.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 73.76 points or 1.99% to 3,632.01, Straits Times shed 49.7 points or 1.53% to 3,199.82 and Hang Seng was down by 2.17 points or 0.01% to 24,495.81.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany’s DAX gained 0.10%, France’s CAC rose 0.31% and UK’s FTSE was up by 0.23%.