Markets remain firm on across the board buying

Indian equity markets have strengthened further and are currently trading near the high points of the day. All the beaten down sectors like realty, banks and commodities have flared up to provide the much needed support to the ailing markets. The banking stocks are mainly aiding to the markets with major players from both private and public sector trading up by 4-5%.  The weakness in international crude prices and positive development on the global front has supported the local markets to move higher for the day. The broader markets that suffered sharp cuts of over three percent in last session have recovered a great lot and were up by around two and half a percent in the early noon session. The only laggard was the IT sector that has plummeted due to loss in the sector heavyweights like TCS and Infy.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,729.10, up by 283.35 points or 1.62% and has touched a high and low of 17,768.97 and 17,530.44 respectively. There were 27 stocks advancing against just 3 declines on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 2.76% and Small cap index was up by 2.42%.

Barring the IT sector that was marginally down by 0.41%, rest all sectoral gauges on the BSE were in green. The top performing were Realty up by 4.35%, Bankex up by 3.64%, Consumer Durables (CD) up by 3.39%, Metal up by 3.23% and Power was up by 2.98%.

Tata Motors up by 5.25%, SBI up by 5.12%, Hindalco Inds up by 4.76%, Sterlite Inds up by 4.76% and BHEL up by 4.67% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while TCS down 1.84%, Infosys down by 0.29%, and ITC down by 0.26% were the only losers in the index.

Meanwhile, the government has signed three loan agreements worth $350 million with the Asian Development Bank to help develop power infrastructure in the country. Out of the $350 million, $200 million will go towards developing the rural electrification infrastructure of Madhya Pradesh, $100 million to finance the solar power transmission system in Gujarat and $50 million to the Power Sector Enhancement Investment Programme in Assam.

The loan to Madhya Pradesh is the second and final $200 million tranche of an ADB loan to support the provision of reliable, 24-hour electricity to rural households. At present the overuse of electricity for irrigation provided through a single distribution feeder leaves households short of power for much of the day. Ageing and overloaded distribution lines and transformers also result in large transmission losses.

ADB’s loan funds will establish separate power feeders for households and agricultural use, install high-voltage distribution systems, provide new power connections and improve the financial sustainability of the distribution companies. It is also expected to open up business, employment and better educational opportunities for the poor.

An agreement worth $100 million has also been signed to develop a transmission system that will distribute 500 megawatts of solar power from the Charanka Solar Park in Gujarat.

The third and final $50 million tranche of an ADB loan to Assam’s Power Sector Enhancement Investment Programme has also been signed. The programme is designed to meet growing demand of electricity in one of India’s poorer states, where the large rural population relies mainly on the agriculture and manufacturing sectors for income. Weaknesses in the transmission of power have affected the competitiveness of businesses. This loan is expected to help strengthen the state’s transmission and distribution system, and reduce technical and commercial losses.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,375.00, higher by 93.80 points or 1.78% and has touched a high and low of 5,384.20 and 5,306.45 respectively. There were 43 stocks advancing against just 7 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Reliance Infra up by 7.37%, RCom up by 5.86%, JP Associates up by 5.86%, RPower up by 5.59% and SBI was up by 5.42%.TCS down by 1.96%, BPCL down by 1.55%, Cairn down by 1.23%, HCL Tech down by 0.54% and Infosys down by 0.45% were the major losers on the index.

Majority of the Asian markets have recovered and barring the Malaysian market all were trading in green, KLSE Composite was down by 0.37%.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite advanced by 0.20%, Hang Seng gained 1.30%, Jakarta Composite added 0.87%, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.92%, Straits Times gained 0.41% and Seoul Composite was higher by 0.63%, while Taiwan remained closed.