Markets continue to trade in high spirit; Nifty nears 8500 mark

Indian markets despite coming off their day’s high were managing to remain considerably higher in the early noon session, supported by broad-based buying. Though washout of monsoon session had weighed on the market sentiment, but Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Cabinet committee on political affairs chose not to prorogue Parliament, keeping the door open for both Houses to meet at short notice before the winter session begins in November, has encouraged the traders to take higher bets. Also, the global markets too were showing sign of stabilization after China’s central bank strengthened its currency’s reference rate for the first time since Tuesday’s devaluation. Markets were being supported by surge in the blue-chips like Reliance Industries, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma and Vedanta.  Buying was visible across the sectors. Realty index was the top sectoral gainer, up by about 4 per cent. Healthcare, auto, power and capital goods indices also advanced.

There was some stock specific actions too, with latest rejig by MSCI in its indices, while Glenmark Pharma and Indiabulls Housing Finance surged on announcement of being added to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Jindal Steel and Power shares, fell on announcement that the stock will no longer be a part of its India index with effect from August 31, 2015.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27945.33, up by 395.80 points or 1.44% after trading in a range of 27643.20 and 27959.33. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were going neck in neck with the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index surged by 1.91%, while Small cap index gained 1.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.91%, Bankex up by 1.74%, Auto up by 1.68%, INFRA up by 1.52%, Power up by 1.24%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 4.02%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 3.30%, Reliance Industries up by 2.74%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.73% and HDFC up by 2.38%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 0.81%, Axis Bank down by 0.69% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the auto industry which has recently started showing signs of recovery is likely to get its cheers doubled, as the transport ministry in its plan to phase out vehicles which are over 10 years old, is looking to provide incentives of up to Rs 1.50 lakh to those who surrender their old vehicles. Also, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will be taking proposal of excise duty waiver along with other sops including lower interest rate on auto loans, discount from manufacturers as well as the scrap value of the old vehicle with the finance ministry soon. 

Transport minister said that if the proposal gets okayed, an owner of an old car would get incentive of up to Rs 30,000, which could go up to Rs 60,000 for heavy commercial vehicles such as trucks. The minister added that there would be other benefits of up to Rs 1.50 lakh but did not elaborate.

Gadkari also said the comprehensive scheme would include provisions of setting up of 8-10 auto shredding plants near ports such as Kandla, which would issue certificates for accepting old vehicles and would recycle vehicles from India and abroad. 'It will create huge employment as well.'

The auto industry have long been demanding for the same to push up sales, but now it has found the ministry’s support in the wake of the National Green Tribunal's order banning diesel vehicles over 10 years old in the National Capital Region.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8478.00, up by 122.15 points or 1.46% after trading in a range of 8381.20 and 8488.85. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.63%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 3.34%, Indusind Bank up by 3.32%, PNB up by 3.04% and Bank Of Baroda up by 3.00%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.02%, GAIL India down by 0.80%, Cairn India down by 0.45% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.39% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Nikkei 225 declined by 76.1 points or 0.37% to 20,519.45, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 30.07 points or 1.85% to 1,591.55, Jakarta Composite was lower by14.29 points or 0.31% to 4,569.96, Shanghai Composite was down by 11.75 points or 0.3% to 3,942.80, Taiwan Weighted declined by 6.1 points or 0.07% to 8,305.64 and Hang Seng was tad lower by 5.91 points or 0.02% to 24,012.89

On the other hand, KOSPI Index increased 7.99 points or 0.4% to 1,983.46 and Straits Times gained 17.72 points or 0.57% to 3,109.50.