Jubilation continues on D-Street in noon deals

Indian markets continuing their jubilation were trading higher by around one and a half percent in afternoon deals. The benchmarks after making a gap-up opening have been trading in a tight band with no sign of any profit taking till yet and Sensex and Nifty once again hitting the psychological mark of 26,600 and 8,050 respectively. Sentiments remained up-beat with reports that the government may extend export incentives such as cheap credit to even large players in sectors like pharmaceuticals, chemicals and electronics. Appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. The rupee appreciated by 25 paise to trade at 65.26 against the US dollar in afternoon trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on increased selling of American currency by exporters.

Global cues too remained supportive with European counters making a firm start, CAC, DAX and FTSE were trading in green with a gain of over one and a half percent in early deals. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time with the indices in the region heading for their longest winning streak in almost three months, with likelihood that near-zero interest rates will persist into next year in the US. 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 were trading in the red. While capital goods and banking witnessed the maximum gain in trade, power, consumer durables, realty, auto, oil and gas, metal, technology and FMCG too were trading significantly higher. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1776 shares on the gaining side against 703 shares on the losing side while 92 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26608.86, up by 387.91 points or 1.48% after trading in a range of 26375.31 and 26649.34. 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 1.43%, while Small cap index up by 1.33%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.72%, Bankex up by 2.26%, Power up by 1.69%, Consumer Durables up by 1.63%, Realty up by 1.49%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 6.70%, HDFC up by 4.40%, ICICI Bank up by 3.52%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.48% and Tata Steel up by 3.32%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.83%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.31%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.17%, Lupin down by 0.90% and Sun Pharma down by 0.53% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das has said that the government is looking to simplify foreign direct investment (FDI) policy with an aim to remove some of the conditions that investors need to fulfill while investing in the country as it looks to further ease procedures to attract more investment, including domestic, at a time when the RBI has cut rates too. The government will not just look at increasing FDI limits in sectors but also put more sectors on the automatic route, among other measures.

Das said that Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will now meet twice a month to speed up approvals, signaling the clear intent of the government in order to push ahead the reforms on a wide range of issues. Das further said that the Sectoral caps need to be revised and the process of approval should be automatic unless there are security concerns or in sensitive sectors.

Das said that the FIPB presently meets an average of once every month while the entire approval process take more than three months even for investments of a few crores of rupees. Besides, the current policy has sectors in which no investment is allowed while others are open to levels such as 26 per cent, 49 per cent, 74 per cent and 100 per cent, depending on how sensitive they are. The policy document, which is more than 120 pages long, has a number of conditions for every sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8062.10, up by 111.20 points or 1.40% after trading in a range of 8005.10 and 8069.20. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 6.45%, HDFC up by 4.55%, ICICI Bank up by 3.59%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.50% and Tata Steel up by 3.37%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.73%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.64%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.20%, Lupin down by 0.92% and Sun Pharma down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; KOSPI Index increased 8.57 points or 0.44% to 1,978.25 FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 13.19 points or 0.81% to 1,641.99, Straits Times surged 40.32 points or 1.44% to 2,833.47, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 47.33 points or 0.57% to 8,352.36, Jakarta Composite soared 117.21 points or 2.79% to 4,325.01, Nikkei 225 added 280.36 points or 1.58% to 18,005.49 and Hang Seng was up by 335.4 points or 1.56% to 21,841.49.

European markets were trading in green; Germany’s DAX gained 1.62%, France’s CAC surged 1.99% and UK’s FTSE was up by 1.68%.