Markets continue to trade in fine fettle aided by auto and realty

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in fine fettle in early noon session, on the back of value-buying in recently battered blue chips counters. Besides, a firm trend at other Asian markets following a strong closing in US markets too supported the rise. Sentiment got upbeat with Nikkei survey stating that India’s services sector activity touched an eight-month high in October driven by a significant rise in new business orders even as growth in manufacturing output eased. Some support also come with the Reserve Bank of India fixing the public issue price at Rs 2,684 per gram for the sovereign gold bonds, for which applications will be accepted from November 5 to 20. Appreciation in the rupee too supported the sentiment. The rupee appreciated by 8 paise to 65.56 against the dollar in early trade on Wednesday on selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, following gains on Wall Street, with Japanese and Chinese stocks leading the way, while investors' stronger appetite for riskier assets pushed up U.S. debt yields. Back home, both Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 26,700 and 8,050 levels, respectively. In scrip specific development, share of Rajesh Exports was trading up by 4.38% after the company bagged Rs 125-crore order of special range jewellery from Valcambi, for the European market. Jain Irrigation was trading up by over 6.53% after the company has bagged Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company’s (MSEDCL) most awaited tender worth Rs 473 crore for supply and installation of 8,959 solar agri-pumps. This is the first pilot phase out of the world’s biggest solar agri-pump project for 500,000 pumps launched by Government of Maharashtra through MSEDCL.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2440 stocks traded, 1363 stocks advanced, while 955 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26708.98, up by 118.39 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 26656.12 and 26800.06. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.50%, while Small cap index was up by 0.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.95%, Realty up by 1.40%, Consumer Durables up by 1.26%, Capital Goods up by 0.67% and FMCG up by 0.48%, while IT down by 0.20%, TECK down by 0.18% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 5.60%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.69%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.63%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.45% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.09%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.12%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.97%, TCS down by 0.63%, ONGC down by 0.50% and ICICI Bank down by 0.47% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, relaxing earlier restrictions, the government has permitted power plants to use imported coal for ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) with higher ash content of up to 25 percent. This move will help to cut the generation cost and allow power producers to source the dry fuel from more countries. The Environment Ministry has said that the latest decision has been taken based on the recommendation of the ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC). Power producers were demanding review of the ash-content restriction for efficient utilisation of high grade, low-moisture coal imported from Australia, South Africa and Russia.

The committee had observed that bulk of the imported coal having ash content lower than 12 percent are typically of Indonesian origin having high moisture content of about 30-40 percent, while imported coal from Australia, Russia, the USA and Columbia have ash content of about 25 percent with moisture content up to 15 percent. It further noted that the lesser the ash generation, the lesser would be its environmental impact. However, by restricting the ash content up to 12 percent, the source of coal gets restricted to a particular origin and thus the price competitiveness may have to be compromised.

Besides, the order stated that the imported coal-based UMPPs using coal with ash content 12 percent should conduct annual study to analyse the actual ash content and assess pollution load and the study report in this regard should be submitted to the ministry. Earlier in February 2013, the Environment Ministry, had reserved ash content in imported coal up to 12 percent, which forced power plants in the coastal region to use only Indonesian coal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8082.70, up by 22.00 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 8070.65 and 8116.10. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 5.56%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.68%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.51%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.41% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.16%, Asian Paints down by 1.13%, GAIL India down by 1.01%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.82% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; KOSPI Index increased 1.08 points or 0.05% to 2,049.48, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 4.98 points or 0.3% to 1,682.54, Jakarta Composite increased 67.13 points or 1.48% to 4,600.21, Shanghai Composite increased 86.71 points or 2.61% to 3,403.41, Taiwan Weighted increased 143.83 points or 1.65% to 8,857.02, Nikkei 225 increased 284.09 points or 1.52% to 18,967.33 and Hang Seng increased 399.16 points or 1.77% to 22,967.59.