Benchmarks continue to trade firm in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade firm in early noon session with over half a percent of gains, on sustained buying by funds and retail investors following firm global cues amid a rate cut of 50 bps by the Reserve Bank of India in its monetary policy review on Tuesday. Traders were also getting some support with a report that India has become the top destination for FDI in the world. With $31 billion of foreign capital inflows, India has surpassed China and the US to take the pole position in attracting largest FDI in the first half of 2015. Appreciation in the rupee too supported sentiment. The rupee rose by 21 paise at 65.74 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green; recovering from the carnage in the previous session following a modestly positive lead from Wall Street overnight. Back home, in scrip specific development, share of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries was trading up by 1.76 after the company commenced a tender offer through its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Thea Acquisition Corporation, for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of InSite Vision Incorporated for $0.35 per share in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 25,950 and 7,850 levels respectively.  Apart from blue chips, broader indices too equally participated in the rally with both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by about a percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25975.00, up by 196.34 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 25918.21 and 26044.60. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.97%, while Small cap index added 0.92%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.43%, Metal up by 2.28%, FMCG up by 1.25%, TECK up by 1.03% and Power up by 0.97%, while Bankex down by 0.54% were the losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.65%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.42%, Hindalco up by 2.86%, Tata Motors up by 2.44% and Coal India up by 2.29%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.30%, Axis Bank down by 1.17%, Vedanta down by 0.87%, ICICI Bank down by 0.82% and TCS down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has approved 18 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals amounting Rs 5,000 crore including Aegon Religare Life Insurance and Aditya Birla Nuvo on the recommendation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) which is headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das. The proposal of Aegon Religare Life Insurance, worth about Rs 560 crore was approved for increasing foreign partner stake in the joint venture. Out of a total of 31 proposals made by for foreign investments, only 18 were accepted as some proposals were rejected due to non-compliance of foreign investment policy.

Besides, FIPB also cleared FDI proposals of Sun Pharma Advanced Research, HDFC Capital Advisors and International Trade and Exhibitions India. However, five proposals were deferred including Reliance Globalcom. Meanwhile, 8 proposals were rejected including pharma firm Cipla which was rejected due to lack of required information. Also, the investment plans of Apollo Hospitals were rejected as it did not comply with the foreign investment policy.

India allows FDI in most of the sectors through automatic route but in certain segments considered sensitive for the economy and security the proposals have to be first cleared by FIPB. According to the data of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), FDI inflows in August have registered an increase of 74% as compared to that of same period last fiscal. During 2014-15 fiscal, FDI grew 27 percent year-on- year to $30.93 billion compared to that of $24.29 billion in 2013-14.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7895.10, up by 51.80 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 7874.50 and 7924.25. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 4.87%, Tata Steel up by 3.82%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.77%, Hindalco up by 2.71% and Tata Motors up by 2.41%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 1.63%, Vedanta down by 1.39%, SBI down by 1.34%, Axis Bank down by 1.23% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.22% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Straits Times increased 2.81 points or 0.1% to 2,790.75, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.47 points or 0.59% to 1,612.79, KOSPI Index increased 15.67 points or 0.81% to 1,958.52, Jakarta Composite increased 20.1 points or 0.48% to 4,198.51, Shanghai Composite increased 30.56 points or 1.01% to 3,068.70, Taiwan Weighted increased 48.89 points or 0.6% to 8,181.24, Hang Seng increased 332.06 points or 1.62% to 20,888.66 and Nikkei 225 increased 484.42 points or 2.86% to 17,415.26.