Benchmarks trade at intraday highs; Nifty regains 7,500 mark

Benchmark equity indices gaining steam steadily and have now escalated to intra-day high levels in noon deals tracing firm global cues. Buying activity picked up momentum largely in-line with a firm trend in other Asian bourses after Bank of Japan introduced negative interest rate regime at its policy meet in order to revive the ailing economy. Closer home, sentiments also got some boost after the fiscal deficit data for April-December 2015-16 have presented a better picture of the government's finance compared to the corresponding period last year. The April-December fiscal gap stood at Rs 4.88 lakh crore as against Rs 5.32 lakh crore y-o-y. Appreciation in Indian rupee too aided sentiments. The rupee recovered 35 paise to 67.87 against the US dollar in noon deals at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters.

Buying in metal space and oil and gas sector too aided sentiments on the back of rebound in oil and commodity prices. However, banks continue to disappoint the street after private bank major ICICI Bank posted dismal quarter earnings on asset quality concerns. Telecom stocks continue to trade under pressure for second day in a row after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has proposed auction of 700 MHz spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 11,485 crore per MHz. This is the highest reserve price fixed for a band ever since the process for spectrum auction started nearly five years ago. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,380 shares on the gaining side against 898 shares on the losing side while 155 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24722.47, up by 252.90 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 24340.06 and 24723.60. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.05%, while Small cap index up by 0.59%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.15%, Energy up by 2.11%, Metal up by 2.06%, Power up by 1.76% and Oil and gas up by 1.64%, while Telecom down by 1.05% and Bankex down by 0.39% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 4.66%, HDFC up by 2.81%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.76%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.69% and ONGC up by 2.59%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 3.58%, SBI down by 2.40%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.08%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.86% and Tata Steel down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid government efforts to attract investment in the various sector, the quality of foreign direct investment (FDI) coming into the country has improved substantially, according to Reserve Bank of India data. Much of these FDI flows in the country have surged in the September 2014-November 2015 period after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Make in India campaign and bettered portfolio inflows during the preceding 15 months.

Modi's Make in India initiative is aimed at turning the country into a global manufacturing hub to generate jobs, raise incomes and drive growth. The government has been seeking to drum up investment as part of this effort. India's growth is being driven by public spending and consumption with private investment yet to kick in substantially.

Gross FDI inflows amounted to $62.6 billion, 31% higher than $47.6 billion in the preceding 15 months. This is more than triple the amount of net portfolio inflows of $14.3 billion in the same period. Though a sizeable amount is estimated to have gone to the manufacturing sector, including consumer goods and food processing, among others, a section of the market feels that a portion of the FDI inflows could have come through the private equity route.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7511.50, up by 86.85 points or 1.17% after trading in a range of 7402.80 and 7513.85. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 7.43%, Yes Bank up by 5.47%, Coal India up by 4.45%, BPCL up by 2.95% and HDFC up by 2.92%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 3.73%, Bank Of Baroda down by 3.69%, SBI down by 2.51%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.16% and Maruti Suzuki down by 2.15% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 5.12 points or 0.27% to 1,912.06, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 14.77 points or 0.9% to 1,649.30, Shanghai Composite soared 90.69 points or 3.41% to 2,746.35, Taiwan Weighted surged 175.5 points or 2.22% to 8,080.60, Hang Seng added 416.46 points or 2.17% to 19,612.29 and Nikkei 225 was up by 476.85 points or 2.8% to 17,518.30. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 16.48 points or 0.36% to 4,586.34.