Markets trade near the highs of the day on broad based buying

Indian markets have strengthened further in the early noon session, trading near the highs of the day supported by broad based buying, led by surge in banking, oil & gas, metal, auto and capital goods stocks. The early gains on strong upmove of the Asian shares after the oil rebounded, has formed the base for the rally in the local markets. Also, comments by European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi fuelled hopes of more stimulus for Europe putting the global equities in jubilant mood. Markets were getting supported by the strength in rupee too on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. Banking stocks extending their last session gains have moved higher on short covering. They were additionally getting supported by RBI’s announcement that the government will pay banks a 2.5 percent commission to unlock the country's massive stash of gold under a new monetisation scheme. There were result reactions too, keeping the markets buzzing, Syngene International, Biocon’s contract research arm surged by 7 per cent after company’s net profit jumped 31 per cent annually to Rs 59 crore on sales of Rs 280 crore. On the same time Idea Cellular fell as much as 6 per cent after missing profit estimates in the December quarter.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24412.71, up by 450.50 points or 1.88% after trading in a range of 24120.04 and 24423.78. There were 29 stocks advancing against just 1 stock declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading with good gains; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 2.10%, while Small cap index gained 2.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 4.21%, PSU up by 3.24%, Auto up by 3.10%, Oil & Gas up by 3.04%, Bankex up by 3.04%

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 7.01%, Tata Steel up by 4.46%, Coal India up by 4.27%, SBI up by 4.24% and Tata Motors up by 3.99%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.65% was the lone loser.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made few amendments to its Master Direction on the Gold Monetisation Scheme in consultation with the government in order to make the scheme 'more customer-friendly'. RBI said that the depositors will be able to withdraw medium-term (5-7 year) and long-term government deposits (12-15 years) pre-maturely after the minimum lock-in period of three years in the case of medium term deposits and after five years in the case of long term deposits.

However, such withdrawal will attract a penalty, in the form of a lower rate of interest for premature withdrawals depending upon the actual period for which the deposit has run. The rate of interest on deposits will be decided by government and notified by the RBI from time to time. For medium-term deposits, withdrawal between three years and five years will attract a penalty of 0.375 per cent in reduced interest rate. For withdrawal between five to seven years, the penalty will be 0.25 per cent in a reduced interest rate. For long-term deposits, the penalty between five to seven years will be 0.25 per cent; between seven to 12 years, 0.375 per cent; between 12 to 15 years, 0.25 per cent.

Further, RBI said that for medium and long-term deposits in the first year, the government will pay banks a total commission of 2.5 per cent -- 1.5 per cent as handling charges and 1 per cent as commission. Moreover, in case of large tenders of gold, the RBI said that the metal can be deposited directly with refiners wherever they have the assaying capacity and added that this will reduce the time lag between the time the raw gold is deposited and it starts bearing interest.

At present the rate of interest as notified by the government on medium term deposit is 2.25 per cent per annum and for long term deposit is 2.50 per cent per annum.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7419.60, up by 142.80 points or 1.96% after trading in a range of 7327.60 and 7421.40. There were 47 stocks advancing against just 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 6.98%, Vedanta up by 6.41%, Hindalco up by 4.83%, SBI up by 4.53% and Bank Of Baroda up by 4.51%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 5.57%, Bharti Airtel down by 4.61% and Infosys down by 0.21% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were all trading with good gains, Jakarta Composite increased 9.82 points or 0.22% to 4,423.94, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 19.75 points or 1.23% to 1,620.67, Shanghai Composite was up by 30.75 points or 1.07% to 2,911.23, KOSPI Index was higher by 38.9 points or 2.11% to 1,879.43, Taiwan Weighted gained 92.17 points or 1.2% to 7,756.18, Hang Seng was up by 515.71 points or 2.78% to 19,057.86 and Nikkei 225 surged by 941.27 points or 5.88% to 16,958.53