Markets make gap up opening amid firm global cues

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity markets have made a gap up opening and are now trading in fine fettle with gains of over one and half percent in early deals on Monday that lifted both the Sensex and Nifty over their psychological 23,350 and 7,100 levels. Meanwhile, the session was also jubilant for broader indices, which were trading with gains in the range of 2.40-2.75%. The sentiment got a boost with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India is the fastest developing country among the “larger economies of the world”. He further said that India is the only economy which has not been affected by the global economic crisis that has hit the world. Support also came in after the Chinese central bank PBoC allayed some fears over depreciating yuan by setting its fixing at a one-month high. Besides, appreciation in Indian rupee against dollar also supported the markets. The rupee rose by 11 paise to 68.12 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks. On the economic front, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) shrank 1.3% in December and the Consumer Price Index (CPI)-accelerated to 5.69% in January, led by a 43% jump in the prices of pulses, from 5.61% a month ago.

In the scrip specific development, Bank of Baroda was trading higher by over 15% after the management said that all non-performing assets were accounted for and it could return to profitability next fiscal.

On the global front, the US markets ended higher on Friday, led by big gains in the financials and oil. Oil futures surged 12%, their biggest one-day gain in seven years. Asian markets were mostly trading in green tracking the positive cues from Wall Street last Friday. Japan's Nikkei index was trading higher by 5 percent as the dollar strengthened against the yen and sluggish GDP data suggested the Bank of Japan may take additional easing at the next meeting in March.

Back home, all the sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in green led by Metal, Realty, Oil & Gas, PSU and Capital Goods. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1441: 307, while 41 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23368.86, up by 382.74 points or 1.67% after trading in a range of 23197.67 and 23390.35. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 2.43%, while Small cap index surged by 2.72%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 4.91%, Realty up by 4.33%, Oil & Gas up by 3.48%, PSU up by 3.31% and Capital Goods up by 2.77%, while there were no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 8.93%, Adani Ports &Special up by 4.70%, Axis Bank up by 3.19%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.11% and SBI up by 3.00%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 0.62% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.08% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, amid the prevailing gloom and chaos in the global markets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India is the fastest developing country among the “larger economies of the world”. He said that India is the only economy which has not been affected by the global economic crisis that has hit the world, primarily due to the policies being implemented by the government.

Modi said that “Everyone is saying this... the World Bank, the IMF... The world is going through an economic crisis, but it is India alone that is progressing at a rapid pace. This is a unique situation when the whole world is slipping and India is growing.” He added that by 2030, when the population of many countries will grow old and when they require a work force, India can power these nations with skilled and technically qualified manpower. He added that the government’s focus is on how to convert the power of the youth which can used for development of the nation. Therefore, we not only launched a skill development programme for the youth but also created a new ministry, with its own budget and a set of officers to take the programme forward.

The prime minister also said that the central government’s policies and programmes, such as Skill India, Start up India, Stand up India, Digital India and Mudra scheme of loans, have contributed immensely to the development of the country. He pointed that over two crore people have benefitted through MUDRA Yojana and over Rs one lakh crore has been disbursed to them. Financial support has been given to people and we have faith in them. Modi said that there is the public sector and the private sector. We want to introduce another sector - the personal sector. We want the people to be self-sufficient and self-employed to be become job creators and not job seekers.The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7112.05, up by 131.10 points or 1.88% after trading in a range of 7056.80 and 7113.95. There were 48 stocks advancing against 1 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank Of Baroda up by 12.31%, Tata Steel up by 9.54%, Vedanta up by 7.27%,  Adani Ports &Special up by 5.50% and Hindalco up by 5.09%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.41% was the only loser.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 13.44 points or 0.82% to 1,657.18, Jakarta Composite increased 25.59 points or 0.54% to 4,739.98, KOSPI Index increased 26.77 points or 1.46% to 1,862.05, Hang Seng increased 475.03 points or 2.59% to 18,794.61 and Nikkei 225 increased 765.81 points or 5.12% to 15,718.42.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 43.47 points or 1.57% to 2,720.03 and Taiwan Weighted decreased 17.11 points or 0.21% to 8,045.89.