Markets gather steam to escalate intra-day high levels; Sensex regains 24,600 mark

Benchmark equity indices gaining steam steadily have now escalated to intra-day high levesl in noon deals tracing firm global cues. Buying activity picked up momentum largely in-line with a firm trend in other Asian bourses and overnight gains in the US and European markets on the back of a rally in crude oil which kept the domestic sentiment upbeat. Closer home, some support came with Standard & Poor's Rating Services stating that Indian economy is less vulnerable to external shocks as it is mainly driven by household consumption and government spending, and not dependent on hot money which can move out quickly. Buying in power stocks too aided sentiments after Coal India's supply to the power sector increased by 6.8 percent to 299.10 million tonnes in the first 9 months of the current fiscal. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1417 shares on the gaining side against 872 shares on the losing side while 139 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24609.77, up by 123.82 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 24464.33 and 24645.70. There were 20 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.64%, while Small cap index up by 0.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.11%, Power up by 1.65%, Realty up by 1.37%, Telecom up by 1.10% and Healthcare up by 0.87%, while there were no losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.90%, Tata Motors up by 2.07%, Sun Pharma up by 1.75%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.73% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.37%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.16%, Asian Paints down by 1.33%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.29%, Axis Bank down by 1.19% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.83% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to boost manufacturing further, the government is planning to create coastal economic zones along the country's 7,500-km long coastline covering many states, ports and special economic zones having uniform policy. The idea is, however, at the conceptual stage. After firming up the proposal, the ambitious plan could be announced by the Prime Minister himself like in the case of 'Make in India'. In the present scenario, these coastal economic zones could come up in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Though, there are special economic zones where investors can set up their manufacturing base and get incentives like tax exemption, speedy regulatory clearance, round the clock power and security. The government wants to create coastal economic zones where investor will be provided host of incentives and facilities uniformly across many town, cities, ports and states.

These coastal economic zones would attract investment as well as workforce in order to create facilities to manufacture not only for domestic production but for exports in large quantities. The government thinks that there should be a port-led development as was done in China where cities were granted special status of open coastal cities which enjoyed special policies of the government. Though India has many ports, there is no cluster or a section of coastline that enjoys special status and incentives.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7468.35, up by 32.20 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 7419.70 and 7476.05. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 3.65%, NTPC up by 2.79%, Idea Cellular up by 2.48%, Tata Motors up by 2.45% and Sun Pharma up by 1.86%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.86%, Asian Paints down by 1.60%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.52%, Axis Bank down by 1.15% and Ambuja Cement down by 1.09% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 6.59 points or 0.41% to 1,633.25, Taiwan Weighted rose 21.16 points or 0.27% to 7,849.83, KOSPI Index soared 26.18 points or 1.4% to 1,897.87, Jakarta Composite surged 51.97 points or 1.15% to 4,562.44, Hang Seng added 248.81 points or 1.32% to 19,109.61 and Nikkei 225 was up by 455.02 points or 2.72% to 17,163.92. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 21.3 points or 0.77% to 2,728.49.