Benchmarks magnify gains; Nifty recaptures 8,050 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued to break psychological levels one after other and were trading jubilantly in noon deals, breaching their crucial 26,450 (Sensex) and 8,050 (Nifty) bastions. Barometer gauges managed to fervently gain from strength to strength as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong but oversold stocks. Sentiments remained up-beat after the US Federal Reserve held off raising rates. Some support also came with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the government has several legislations in the pipeline that will be pursued in coming days. Strong rally in financial and banking shares too aided the sentiments on the hopes of a monetary easing by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after the US Federal Reserve did not opt for a short term interest rate hike.

On the global front, European counters have made a weak start, CAC, DAX and FTSE were trading with a cut of around a percent in early deals. However, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, with the indices in the region cheering the Fed’s decision, though the Japanese market was suffering sharp cuts as the yen has strengthened against dollar. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. None of the sectoral indices, barring FMCG, were trading in the red. While realty and banking witnessed the maximum gain in trade, public sector undertaking, auto, capital goods, software, technology, healthcare and oil and gas too were trading significantly. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1733 shares on the gaining side against 591 shares on the losing side while 94 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26459.82, up by 495.85 points or 1.91% after trading in a range of 26130.36 and 26471.82. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.87%, while Small cap index up by 1.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 4.00%, Bankex up by 3.61%, PSU up by 2.02%, Auto up by 1.80% and Capital Goods up by 1.62%, while FMCG down by 0.08% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 4.90%, ICICI Bank up by 4.07%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.81%, SBI up by 3.74% and HDFC Bank up by 3.54%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.86%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.06%, GAIL India down by 0.97%, ITC down by 0.20% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.03% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Paris-based think tank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said that India is projected to grow at a slightly slower pace than expected earlier at 7.2 percent this fiscal but the country is an 'exception' to the worsening picture in major emerging economies. Earlier, in June this year OECD had projected India’s growth at 7.3 percent in 2015-16 and 7.4 percent growth in 2016-17, respectively. The think tank emphasised that India is projected to continue to grow strongly, broadly in line with 2015, and EMEs like Brazil and Russia should see some improvement in 2016 if commodity prices do not fall further.

In its interim economic outlook report OECD said that global growth prospects have weakened slightly and become less clear in recent months. It added that world trade growth has stagnated and financial conditions have deteriorated. It also trimmed the global growth forecast to 3 percent this year from earlier projection of 3.1 percent. The recovery is nonetheless progressing in advanced economies, but the outlook has worsened further for many emerging market economies (EMEs).

Regarding other countries, OECD said that slowdown has been sharpest in countries heavily dependent on commodities and/or with close trade links to China, notably in East and South-East Asia. In 2015, China is expected to grow by 6.7 percent and at a slower rate of 6.5 percent next year. Brazil's economy is expected to shrink by 2.8 percent in 2015 and by an additional 0.7 percent rate in 2016.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8051.45, up by 152.30 points or 1.93% after trading in a range of 7958.75 and 8055.00. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 4.96%, PNB up by 4.32%, Bank of Baroda up by 4.22%, ICICI Bank up by 4.16% and SBI up by 3.72%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.66%, GAIL India down by 1.26%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.03%, Cairn India down by 0.59% and ITC down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 2.02 points or 0.07% to 3,088.08, Straits Times rose 11.1 points or 0.38% to 2,906.91, Taiwan Weighted gained 16.64 points or 0.2% to 8,462.14, KOSPI Index surged 19.46 points or 0.98% to 1,995.95, Jakarta Composite added 33.67 points or 0.77% to 4,412.06 and Hang Seng was up by 64.44 points or 0.29% to 21,919.07. 

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 362.06 points or 1.96% to 18,070.21 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.28 points or 0.31% to 1,676.26.

European Markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX lost 1.00%, UK’s FTSE declined 0.60% and France’s CAC was down by 1.36%.