Benchmarks extend gains in noon deals; Sensex regains 27,300 mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended the gains in noon deals with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 8,250 (Nifty) and 27,300 (Sensex) levels, as investors continued hunt for fundamentally strong but oversold stocks. Sentiments remained up-beat with report that the government is likely to go for a fresh round of consultations on Goods and Service Tax with the Opposition parties after the Bihar elections. Appreciation in Indian rupee too supported the sentiments. The rupee is trading marginally higher at 64.77 against the dollar on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters amid sustained foreign fund inflows. Rally in Reliance Industries’ shares too aided sentiments with company reporting highest ever quarterly net profit of Rs 6,720 crore for three months ending September 30 on spike in refinery and petrochemicals margins.

On the global front, European markets have made a positive start with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading in green in early deals. Asian stocks were trading mostly in green at this point of time, after the report of Chinese economy expanding at 6.9% in third quarter, better than expected, as the services sector propped up the world’s second-largest economy, but still it was slowest since 2009. Back home, on the sectoral front, realty, healthcare and oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while capital goods, power and metal remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,484 shares on the gaining side against 939 shares on the losing side, while 152 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27376.23, up by 161.63 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 27246.79 and 27377.36. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.42%, while Small cap index gained 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.27%, Healthcare up by 1.01%, Oil & Gas up by 0.97%, TECK up by 0.70% and FMCG up by 0.56%, while Capital Goods down by 0.66%, Power down by 0.46%, Metal down by 0.45%, Auto down by 0.27% and Consumer Durables down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 4.40%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.30%, Sun Pharma up by 2.32%, Infosys up by 1.26% and Cipla up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.74%, ONGC down by 1.65%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.16%, Tata Motors down by 1.10% and ICICI Bank down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to attract more retail investors into the stock markets, the Department of Disinvestment (DoD) has suggested tax incentives for small investors. The department has made a formal proposal for tax incentives to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the Finance Ministry.

Further, the DoD wants a broad based retail market to be created to get good value for the government stake sale planned in several PSUs. The DoD has been long trying to attract more retail investors into the equity market so that they can own a pie in the government companies as and when PSU stake sales happen. According to the DoD, a tax incentive will attract retail investors to equities of both public and private companies. Furthermore, it added that encouraging retail investors will ensure flow of savings into domestic capital markets which would improve its depth.

Currently, the government reserves 20 per cent of the issue size for retail investors, who are allowed to invest up to Rs 2 lakh in the Offer for Sale (OFS). Also a 5 per cent discount is offered to them over the bid price. However, the quota reserved for retail investors has not been fully subscribed in some of the big-ticket stake sales like Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Coal India (CIL).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8274.15, up by 36.00 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 8239.20 and 8275.65. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 4.41%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.86%, Sun Pharma up by 2.36%, Infosys up by 1.23% and Cipla up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.98%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.80%, Tata Steel down by 1.68%, ONGC down by 1.59% and Power Grid Corpn. down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 0.01 points to 2,030.27, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.43 points or 0.03% to 1,717.25, Taiwan Weighted gained 26.55 points or 0.31% to 8,631.50 and Jakarta Composite was up by 38.19 points or 0.84% to 4,560.07. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 160.57 points or 0.88% to 18,131.23, Hang Seng shed 105.93 points or 0.46% to 22,961.44 and Shanghai Composite was down by 6.88 points or 0.2% to 3,384.47.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany’s DAX gained 0.19%, France’s CAC added 0.18% and UK’s FTSE was up by 0.13%.