Jubilation continues on Dalal Street in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade jubilantly in noon deals with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 23,500 (Sensex) and 7,150 (Nifty) levels. Sentiment remained upbeat after the Union Budget provided a higher outlay for infrastructure and farming sectors. Meanwhile, Bets of a rate cut gained momentum after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley retained FY17 fiscal deficit target at 3.5 per cent of GDP despite increasing expenditure for rural and infrastructure spending. Appreciation in Indian rupee too aided sentiments. Hardening further for the third straight day, the rupee advanced another 18 paise to 68.24 against the dollar in noon deals on sustained selling of the US currency by banks and exporters.

Global cues too remained supportive with Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time after China’s central bank cut further the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 per cent in an attempt to calm investor jitters. US stocks closed lower yesterday on late-day selling as investors shrugged off oil price rise and off-loaded energy and healthcare shares. Closer home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,755 shares on the gaining side against 528 shares on the losing side while 85 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23577.74, up by 575.74 points or 2.50% after trading in a range of 23133.18 and 23593.46. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.91%, while Small cap index up by 2.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 4.10%, IT up by 3.09%, Auto up by 3.06%, TECK up by 2.90% and Realty up by 2.69%, while there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 8.49%, Hero MotoCorp up by 6.45%, ICICI Bank up by 6.00%, Maruti Suzuki up by 5.47% and GAIL India up by 4.09%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 0.72%, HDFC down by 0.62%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.34% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a major push to the roads sector, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget for the financial year 2016-17 has allocated Rs 55000 crore to the sector. This will be further topped up by additional 15,000 crore to be raised by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through tax free bonds. Thus the total investment in the road sector, including Pradhanmatri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) allocation, would be Rs 97,000 crore during 2016-17.

Further the Minister has announced that road transport in the passenger segment would be opened up to the private sector. Jaitley also said amendments would be made in Motor vehicle act to get more participation from private sector. He said focus would be to end permit raj to make the sector more transparent.

Besides, the government will award nearly 10,000 kms of National Highways in 2016-17. This will be much higher than in the two previous years. In addition, nearly 50,000 kms of State highways will also be taken up for up-gradation as National Highways.

In 2015, India’s highest ever kilometres of new highways were awarded. At the same time, India’s highest ever production of motor vehicles was also achieved in 2015. This is a sign of growth in the economy; but it presents a challenge also.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7160.90, up by 173.85 points or 2.49% after trading in a range of 7035.10 and 7168.65. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 8.83%, Hero MotoCorp up by 6.40%, ICICI Bank up by 5.92%, Maruti Suzuki up by 5.71% and Zee Entertainment up by 4.53%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.16%, HDFC down by 0.52%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.47% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.41% were the few losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.4 points or 0.57% to 1,664.15, Shanghai Composite surged 56.35 points or 2.1% to 2,744.33, Nikkei 225 gained 58.75 points or 0.37% to 16,085.51, Taiwan Weighted added 74.53 points or 0.89% to 8,485.69 and Hang Seng was up by 183.11 points or 0.96% to 19,295.04. On the flip side, KOSPI Index decreased 3.5 points or 0.18% to 1,916.66 and Jakarta Composite was down by 0.79 points or 0.02% to 4,770.16.