Jubilation continues on Dalal Street; Nifty regains 7,350 mark

Indian equity benchmarks are trading jubilantly in noon deals with Nifty and Sensex recapturing their psychological 7,350 and 24,200 levels, respectively. Sentiments remained up-beat as talk of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank gained momentum following the government’s commitment to the fiscal deficit road map as displayed in the Budget while the rupee rose against the dollar, which supported the upbeat mood. Appreciation in Indian rupee too sided sentiments. The rupee added to its gains by rising 21 paise to a fresh three-week high of 67.67 against the dollar today on continued selling of the US currency by banks and exporters.

Banking shares mainly public sector undertakings (PSUs) remained on buyers’ radar after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to beef up its capital adequacy by including certain items such as property value, foreign exchange for calculation of its Tier-I capital. FMCG stocks too remained in limelight as the rural and agriculture push is likely to drive sales of companies.

Global cues too remained supportive with Asian markets rallying at this point of time as signs of recovery in the US manufacturing sector and gains in oil prices eased worries about a global slowdown and pushed US stocks sharply higher. 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 1886 shares on the gaining side against 477 shares on the losing side while 114 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24202.39, up by 423.04 points or 1.78% after trading in a range of 24043.89 and 24249.31. 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 2.30%, while Small cap index up by 2.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 5.18%, Bankex up by 4.20%, Finance up by 3.72%, PSU up by 2.94% and Power up by 2.59%, while there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 8.72%, BHEL up by 6.47%, Adani Ports &Special up by 6.13%, Hero MotoCorp up by 5.30% and ICICI Bank up by 4.90%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.57%, ITC down by 1.66%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.39%, Wipro down by 0.41% and Coal India down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, giving a major reforms push, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the budget has allowed 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the marketing of food products produced and manufactured in India, to boost the country's farm sector. In his budget proposals, Jaitley said the approvals for such projects will be accorded by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

Food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has said that this will provide impetus to the sector benefit farmers and create vast employment opportunities. She said that “this step will lead to creation of swadeshi infrastructure with videshi money”.  Detailing the importance of the move Badal stated that it will benefit the consumer by reducing inflation, will reduce wastage, increase availability of fresh and processed variety of food at a stable price, and improve farming technology. Badal further said that this would result in big buyers reaching out to farmers for their agri-horti produce.

Further Badal said the farmers will get remunerative prices for their produce and benefit from the transfer of technology and modern agricultural practices, which are required for large-scale production to meet the requirements of organised marketing. She said that foreign investment is targeted to bring in higher efficiencies in the food processing industry and trade and is expected to make Indian food products more competitive in international markets.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7360.30, up by 138.00 points or 1.91% after trading in a range of 7308.15 and 7372.45. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 9.01%, Bank of Baroda up by 8.05%, Hindalco up by 7.69%, BHEL up by 6.41% and Adani Ports &Special up by 6.02%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.65%, ITC down by 1.66%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.18%, Wipro down by 0.55% and Coal India down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 12.84 points or 0.77% to 1,683.66, KOSPI Index surged 30.76 points or 1.6% to 1,947.42, Taiwan Weighted gained 58.36 points or 0.69% to 8,544.05, Jakarta Composite rose 60.04 points or 1.26% to 4,840.02, Shanghai Composite soared 106.99 points or 3.91% to 2,840.16, Hang Seng added 613.04 points or 3.16% to 20,020.50 and Nikkei 225 was up by 661.04 points or 4.11% to 16,746.55.