Benchmarks trade in green; Realty, TECK lead

Indian equity markets continued their firm trade in late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The sentiments were on optimistic note as India outpaced China as the world’s fastest growing economy in 2015 and is expected to clock 7-7.5 percent growth in the New Year provided the reform momentum continues and the business environment improves. Traders were seen piling position in Realty, TECK and Power stocks, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and FMCG sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Petronet LNG and Gail India were trading firm after Qatar agreed to restructure RLNG contract. On the other hand, Cadila Healthcare was trading in red on receiving US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) warning for violating manufacturing standards at two of its production facilities. The market may remain volatile today as traders may roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. December 2015 series to next month i.e. January 2015 series. The near month December 2015 derivatives contracts will expire today i.e. December 31, 2015.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mixed while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,900 and 26,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1395:1115 while 257 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26005.68, up by 45.65 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 25941.91 and 26029.30. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.15%, while Small cap index up by 0.41%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.76%, TECK up by 0.60%, Power up by 0.49%, IT up by 0.47% and PSU up by 0.32%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.15%, Capital Goods down by 0.05% and FMCG down by 0.03% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 1.77%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.20%, HDFC up by 1.12%, Infosys up by 0.93% and Coal India up by 0.64%.

On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.86%, BHEL down by 0.65%, ITC down by 0.49%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.46% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, poor response from bidders in sectors like steel amid depressed commodity prices and adverse market conditions has forced the government to annul the process for fourth round of coal block auctions, meant for deregulated industries such as steel and cement which was scheduled for the next month.

Coal secretary Anil Swarup has said that “We have not got sufficient number of bids to carry on with the coal block auctions. We have received 15 bids for nine blocks. So in view of this, we had to annul the process and the government will wait for the right time for the auction of these mines”. He further said that the coal mines to be auctioned were earmarked for non-regulated sectors like iron and steel, cement and captive power plants, which have been impacted due to adverse market conditions.

The government had last month kick-started the process to auction nine blocks for sectors like iron and steel, cement and captive power plants. The fourth round of mines auction was slated for January 18-22. The previous three rounds of auction would generate proceeds of over Rs 3 lakh crore, to be realised over 30 years, for states where the mines are located. The coal blocks, which were to be put under the hammer were Brahmapuri and Suliyari in Madhya Pradesh, Bundu and Gondulpura in Jharkhand, Gondkhari and Khappa & Extn in Maharashtra and Jaganathpur A and Jaganathpur B in West Bengal besides Bhaskarpara mine in Chhattisgarh.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7914.80, up by 18.55 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 7891.15 and 7923.60. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 2.20%, GAIL India up by 1.48%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.32%, Tata Power up by 1.25% and HDFC up by 1.23%.

On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.58%, PNB down by 1.49%, Axis Bank down by 0.79%, BHEL down by 0.74% and Yes Bank down by 0.66% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng increased 32.25 points or 0.15% to 21,914.40, Taiwan Weighted increased 58.07 points or 0.7% to 8,338.06.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite decreased 33.69 points or 0.94% to 3,539.18 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.35 points or 0.02% to 1,692.79.

Japan, Indonesia and South Korea were closed on account of national holiday.

The European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 16.33 points or 0.26% to 6,257.72 and France’s CAC decreased 13.99 points or 0.3% to 4,663.15.