Benchmarks make positive start; Nifty reclaims 8000 mark

Indian equity markets have made a positive opening for third straight day and are now trading with the gains of more than half a percent, on the back of sustained buying by funds and retail investors amid firm global cues. Favourable macro-economic numbers has cheered the mood of the investors. India's annual infrastructure output growth picked up in August to 2.6% from a year ago, mainly driven by higher cement and electricity generation. Some support also came on reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 116.08 crore on September 30 2015, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 26,350 and 8,000 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 0.61% and 0.77% respectively.

In scrip specific development, HCL Technologies dropped 15 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in the early morning trade after the information technology services company in its a pre-quarter guidance indicated that revenues to be reported in US dollar will have an adverse impact of 80bps on account of sharp depreciation of multiple currencies against US dollar.

On the global front, the US markets ended higher on the final day of the third quarter, but the main indexes still ended the month and a quarter with steep losses. On the economy front, buoyed by strong consumer spending and steady home sales, businesses in the United States added jobs at a healthy pace in September. The Asian markets were trading in green following the strong positive cues overnight from Wall Street and European markets. Data showing that the slowdown in Chinese manufacturing activity is stabilizing also boosted investor sentiment.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in green, with prominent gainers being the stocks from Healthcare, Power, Capital Goods, FMCG and TECK counters. On the flip side, stocks from Consumer Durables counter were the only losers of the session. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1243:427 while 61scrips remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26368.18, up by 213.35 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 26325.40 and 26431.80. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.61%, while Small cap index gained 0.77%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.58%, Power up by 0.92%, Capital Goods up by 0.92%, FMCG up by 0.84% and TECK up by 0.74%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.31% was the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 2.57%, Lupin up by 2.54%, Infosys up by 2.20%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.93% and GAIL India up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.06%, BHEL down by 0.66%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.50%, Tata Steel down by 0.47% and Reliance Industries down by 0.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan, acknowledging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to market India as an investment destination has described him as being “ahead of us” and said that his visits abroad need to be backed up with “action on the ground” to reinforce the “good impression that is created”.  He said that “I think the world view of India in the aftermath of Modi’s foreign visits is changing positively.

Rajan said that we have to come up to speed in a number of dimensions. He added that it is known abroad that there are some issues that they have to deal with, but it should not be worse than their expectations. For example, if the idea of India as a strong economy is sold outside and they come in, and they don't find the ease of doing business, the permissions, etc people aren't (happy).”

The RBI chief also praised the government for effective food management, which he said helped keep food inflation in check despite two consecutive years of drought. Invoking PM Modi's advice to India Inc, Dr Rajan said investors must take a plunge with a 'hope and a prayer' and not wait for government actions. Rajan said he will be “accommodative” if data permits, signaling the possibility of further easing in interest rates.

The governor further said the relationship between the RBI and the government has been strong, but added that he did not always agree with the finance minister's point of view, adding that in a sense we have to be a gatekeeper and sometimes say no!

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8001.65, up by 52.75 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 7982.20 and 8008.25. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 3.34%, Idea Cellular up by 2.71%, Lupin up by 2.50%, Wipro up by 2.30% and Sun Pharma up by 2.25%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 8.46%, Tata Motors down by 1.17%, BHEL down by 0.73%, Tata Steel down by 0.59% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.1 points or 0.19% to 1,624.14, Shanghai Composite increased 14.64 points or 0.48% to 3,052.78, KOSPI Index increased 21.3 points or 1.09% to 1,984.11, Straits Times increased 26.19 points or 0.94% to 2,817.08,Jakarta Composite increased 31.94 points or 0.76% to 4,255.85, Taiwan Weighted increased 121.04 points or 1.48% to 8,302.28, Hang Seng increased 289.7 points or 1.41% to 20,846.30 and Nikkei 225 increased 428.12 points or 2.46% to 17,816.27.