Benchmarks continue to trade in the positive territory

Indian equity benchmarks are managing to trade in green in late morning session, on the back of increased buying by funds tracking a firm trend in other Asian markets amid fading concern about the geopolitical impact of terror attacks in Paris and overnight solid gains on the US markets. Investors got some encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that low oil prices have created a favourable environment for the Indian economy as it helped to absorb the loss faced by oil companies and kept inflation under control. Appreciation in the rupee too supported the sentiment. The rupee advanced by two paise to 65.97 against the dollar in early trade today on sustained selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. The broader markets are outperforming their larger peers with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining 0.34% and 0.69% respectively. The market breadth is strong with 1333 advances against 791 declines on the BSE. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, following a surge on Wall Street overnight, as investors clawed back losses that came on the back of last week's Paris attacks. Back home, both sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 25,800 and 7,800 levels, respectively. In scrip specific development, share of Apollo Tyres was trading higher after the company acquired Reifencom GmbH, one of the largest tyre distributors in Germany for Euro 45.6 million. Reifencom GmbH has an online presence in 6 countries - Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. In addition, it operates 37 stores and service centers across Germany.

 The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25842.73, up by 82.63 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 25799.21 and 25917.01. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.27%, while Small cap index gained 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.47%, Metal up by 1.43%, Realty up by 1.05%, Power up by 0.55% and Capital Goods up by 0.35%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.38%, IT down by 0.33%, TECK down by 0.24%, Bankex down by 0.09% and Oil & Gas down by 0.00% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco up by 3.86%, Vedanta up by 3.18%, ITC up by 2.36%, Tata Steel up by 2.26% and GAIL India up by 1.73%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.77%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.69%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.13%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.10% and Axis Bank down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India won't need to import dry fuel by 2017 apart from the need to meet the requirements of the power plants located near coastal area. Minister for Coal, Power and New & Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal while releasing the India’s report titled ‘The Rising Sun - Disruption on the horizon’ at ENRich 2015 has said that India should not need to import coal except for those coastal plants where it is very difficult to transmit coal and said that he was fairly confident the era of shortages is over.

Further Goyal said that the government is looking at complete ability to exchange coal or to swap coal, complete synergy in the power and coal sectors so that coal is used most efficiently by the most efficient power plants at the nearest location and power is transmitted rather than coal in their next level of UDAY. Besides, he stressed that the renewable energy capacity target of 175 GW by 2022, is not only doable but necessary also in view of energy security of the country.

Falling for the fourth consecutive month Coal imports declined  in October by 5.1 per cent to 14.52 million tonnes (MT) over same month year ago. In September the imports of dry fuel dropped by 27.16 per cent to 12.6 MT on rise in domestic production. Last fiscal India imported 212.103 million tonnes of coal worth over Rs 1 lakh crore. Besides, the government is eyeing to achieve 1.5 billion tonnes of coal production by 2020.

The minister also said that with launch of discoms revival schemes UDAY, REC and PFC can lend $20 billion for areas like transmission, renewables etc. besides, he also assured that his ministry will contribute in the country’s holistic development by ensuring speed to the wheels of progress through energy security.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7835.45, up by 28.85 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 7817.35 and 7850.15. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.86%, Vedanta up by 3.46%, ITC up by 2.47%, HCL Tech. up by 2.19% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.14%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.91%, Infosys down by 1.69%, BPCL down by 1.65%, Grasim Industries down by 1.39% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 10.31 points or 0.62% to 1,666.31, KOSPI Index increased 27.5 points or 1.42% to 1,970.52, Shanghai Composite increased 48.7 points or 1.35% to 3,655.65, Jakarta Composite increased 68.78 points or 1.55% to 4,510.96, Taiwan Weighted increased 136.03 points or 1.64% to 8,431.43, Nikkei 225 increased 312.46 points or 1.61% to 19,706.15 and Hang Seng increased 458.98 points or 2.09% to 22,469.80.