Benchmarks magnify gains; Nifty trades near 7400 mark

Extending their early gains, Indian equity markets continued to trade with vigor on account of buying in front line blue chip counters and taking cues from global counterparts. Sentiment got a boost after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said India is gradually transforming most of its taxation laws for a greater degree of stability and predictability, stressing that the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a major step in this direction. The net impact of the GST, once it is put into force, is that there will be a seamless transfer of goods and services across the country. Besides, overnight cues from the US amid hopes of monetary easing from ECB and firming up of global crude oil prices also boosted sentiment. However, investors remained cautious with report that RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan shot down Niti Aayog chief Arvind Panagariya's suggestion to raise the central bank's inflation target, while pointing out that the country's macroeconomic fundamentals were stable. He said the current global market turbulence may owe much to central banks persisting with stimulus programmes for too long.

On the global front, Asian markets rallied on Friday after a volatile week, as investors put their hopes in more stimulus from the European Central Bank. Overnight, US markets closed with modest gains. US energy stocks climbed as oil prices bounced back from their worst trading session in the last four months and strong earnings from Verizon lifted the telecom stocks.  Back home, all BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, Metal index gained the most by 3.15 per cent, followed by PSU 3.11 per cent, Banking 3.05 per cent and Auto 2.97 per cent. Among other shares, Textiles stocks witnessed buying interest after Union Minister of State for Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar said India's textile exports will achieve the target of $40 billion during this fiscal. On the other hand, shares of aviation companies were under pressure as oil prices rebounded over $1 a barrel from 12-year lows on Thursday, their biggest daily gain this year.

In scrip specific development, shares of Alembic Pharmaceuticals have gained after the company has reported over three fold jump in its net profit at Rs 280.13 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 as compared to Rs 73.99 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. On the other hand, shares of Idea Cellular have dipped after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 764 crore against an average analysts estimate of Rs 776 crore for the quarter ended December 2015.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2262 stocks traded, 1801 stocks advanced, while 355 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24370.57, up by 408.36 points or 1.70% after trading in a range of 24120.04 and 24375.17. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.78%, while Small cap index up by 2.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.15%, PSU up by 3.11%, Bankex up by 3.05%, Auto up by 2.97% and Realty up by 2.76%, while there were no losers on BSE sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 6.54%, SBI up by 4.41%, NTPC up by 3.95%, Axis Bank up by 3.80% and Maruti Suzuki up by 3.52%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.93%, Adani Ports &Special down by 0.90%, ITC down by 0.41% and Wipro down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, reiterating government’s stand has said that NITI Aayog is playing an active role in ensuring ease of doing business in the country. He said that NITI Aayog is playing various roles particularly in the area of ease of doing business. Survey of entrepreneurs is being done to ascertain the areas where entrepreneurs see the improvement has been made or not.

Panagariya further stated that under the PRAGATI initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, regular meetings are held with Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries via video conferencing and the progress made on various projects specially infrastructure projects is discussed. He added that central government is welcoming the states which want to make changes in their land laws and a model law on land-leasing is being framed with discussions with states.

Talking about the latest initiative of the government of Start-up India, he said that the states will be at the centre-stage of the Start-up India plan and the Centre will capitalise on the experiences of different states in promoting startups. He added that the states have now power of decision-making. As we move forward, the states will be the masters of their fate.

The NITI Aayog vice-chairman also said that the government is on the course of fiscal consolidation despite a tough global situation and it needs to enhance both the direct and indirect tax base going ahead.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7395.05, up by 118.25 points or 1.63% after trading in a range of 7327.60 and 7397.55. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 6.21%, Bank of Baroda up by 4.87%, SBI up by 4.30%, Vedanta up by 4.25% and PNB up by 4.12%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 6.23%, Bharti Airtel down by 5.03%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.13%, ITC down by 0.41% and Wipro down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.96%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.3%, KOSPI Index up by 1.77%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.22%, Taiwan Weighted up by 1.14%, Hang Seng up by 2.33% and Nikkei 225 up by 5.04%.