Benchmarks continue its firm trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued its trade in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip stocks. The Sensex and Nifty showcased a dramatic recovery after touching their fresh 52-week low when finance minister was presenting Budget 2016. The Finance Minister concluded its presentation whereby he unveiled a budget for farmers and the poor, announcing a string of farm measures, rural aid and health programmes. Investors are relieved that the government is sticking to the roadmap for fiscal consolidation. Traders were seen piling position in Bankex, Metal and Realty stocks while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, IT and TECK sector stocks.

In scrip specific development, dairy companies stocks like Hatsun Agro Products, Kwality and Prabhat Dairy were trading firm after the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in its budget has proposed four new schemes to enhance dairy farming in India with allocation of Rs 850 crore in Union Budget 2016-17. Education companies like Educomp Solutions, NIIT and Career Point were trading in green after the finance minister announced government’s focus on skill development & quality education.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red, while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,000 and 23,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1096:1218, while 145 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23224.89, up by 70.59 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 22494.61 and 23343.22. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.24%, while Small cap index up by 0.23%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.15%, Metal up by 1.48%, Realty up by 0.77%, FMCG up by 0.51%, Oil & Gas up by 0.30% while, Consumer Durables down by 1.94%, IT down by 1.23%, TECK down by 1.07%, Capital Goods down by 0.61%, Power down by 0.49% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.92%, Tata Steel up by 3.58%, Reliance Industries up by 2.68%, SBI up by 2.30% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.88%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 4.60%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.02%, Infosys down by 2.27%, Wipro down by 2.22% and NTPC down by 1.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government is looking to mobilise at least Rs 10 lakh crore investment, including Rs 4 lakh crore in the infrastructure sector alone under its ambitious Sagarmala project which aims to accelerate economic development by harnessing the potential of India’s 7,500 km coastline.

Gadkari said that Sagarmala NPP (national perspective plan) envisages viable infrastructure investment worth Rs 4 lakh crore over next 10 years and industrial investment worth 6 lakh crore. He further added that more investment could come from industrial and manufacturing sectors.

Meanwhile, the government has sought comments from various stakeholders on the national perspective plan of Sagarmala under which it has identified about 150 projects. Out of 150 projects, 40 are related to ports modernisation while 10 are community development projects. Ports capacity in India is close to about 1,400 million tonnes. A total value of about 1 billion tonnes of cargo is handled across over 200 ports including the Centre-owned 12 major ports.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7035.80, up by 6.05 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 6825.80 and 7094.60. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.97%, ICICI Bank up by 3.76%, Tata Steel up by 3.48%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.80% and Reliance Industries up by 2.63%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 4.26%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.35%, Infosys down by 2.24%, NTPC down by 2.22% and Wipro down by 1.98% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 252.22 points or 1.3% to 19,111.93, Nikkei 225 decreased 161.65 points or 1% to 16,026.76, Shanghai Composite decreased 79.23 points or 2.86% to 2,687.98, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 11.09 points or 0.67% to 1,652.35 and KOSPI Index decreased 3.5 points or 0.18% to 1,916.66.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite increased 25.62 points or 0.54% to 4,758.77. Taiwan Stock Exchange was closed on account of ‘Make-Up Holiday’.

The European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 35.79 points or 0.59% to 6,060.22, Germany’s DAX decreased 77.62 points or 0.82% to 9,435.68 and France’s CAC decreased 28.44 points or 0.66% to 4,286.13.