Benchmarks continue firm trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on optimistic note on reports that 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. Traders were seen piling position in Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and TECK stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Auto and Metal sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, HCL Technologies was trading under pressure after it stated that it expects its revenues for the September quarter to be tepid, impacted by adverse currency movement and issues with a client in the public services vertical. Tata Motors was trading in red after global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) downgraded the rating for the company from positive to stable on account of slowdown in China and continuing capital expenditure at Jaguar Land Rover.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,900 and 26,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1311:1199 while 117 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26208.31, up by 53.48 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 26171.20 and 26431.80. There were 15 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.17%, while Small cap index up by 0.20%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.50%, Consumer Durables up by 0.36%, TECK up by 0.24%, FMCG up by 0.16% and Oil & Gas up by 0.02% while, Realty down by 1.59%, Auto down by 0.50%, Metal down by 0.33%, Bankex down by 0.23% and Power down by 0.09% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Lupin up by 2.97%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.36%, TCS up by 2.08%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.39% and Infosys up by 1.13%.

On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.99%, GAIL India down by 2.86%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.03%, Vedanta down by 1.59% and Tata Motors down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, state run fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) have hiked diesel price by 50 paise per litre. The new rates announced by the oil marketing companies (OMCs) will be effective from October 1, 2015. However the price of petrol was kept unchanged. This is the first increase in diesel price since May 16.  As a result, price of diesel in the national capital will be Rs 44.95 per litre as against Rs 44.45 per litre.

At the last revision on September 1, prices of Petrol and Diesel were cut by Rs 2 per litre and Rs 0.50 per litre respectively, on account of reduction in international crude prices in the month of August. The retailers had skipped the revision of fuel prices scheduled for September 15 on the ground that the difference between production cost and retail rate was 'marginal'.

PSU oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp revise petrol and diesel prices on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rates in the previous fortnight.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7939.90, down by 9.00 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 7935.00 and 8008.25. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 3.13%, Lupin up by 3.07%, Sun Pharma up by 2.37%, TCS up by 2.02% and Ambuja Cement up by 1.99%.

On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 11.09%, GAIL India down by 3.27%, BHEL down by 3.16%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.93% and Vedanta down by 1.65% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 13.41 points or 0.83% to 1,634.45, Straits Times increased 16.47 points or 0.59% to 2,807.36, KOSPI Index increased 16.51 points or 0.84% to 1,979.32, Jakarta Composite increased 40.01 points or 0.95% to 4,263.91, Taiwan Weighted increased 114.7 points or 1.4% to 8,295.94 and Nikkei 225 increased 334.27 points or 1.92% to 17,722.42.

Stock markets in China and Hong Kong were closed on account of National Day.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 73.64 points or 1.21% to 6,135.25, France’s CAC increased 54.82 points or 1.23% to 4,510.11 and Germany’s DAX increased 60.69 points or 0.63% to 9,721.13.