Benchmarks continue firm trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade hovering near the highest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on optimistic note from early trade after International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest World Economic Outlook though nudged down its global growth projection for 2016 from 3.4% to 3.2%, stated that India’s growth is projected to notch up to 7.5% in 2016-17. Some additional support came after reports enlightened that 2016 could turn out to be a good year for the common man, and also to Narendra Modi’s economic ambitions. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted an above-normal monsoon after two years of drought - which is much needed to breathe life back into India’s struggling farm economy. Traders were seen piling position in Auto, Bankex and Metal stocks. In scrip specific development, Shilpa Medicare was trading firm after the company stated that it received good manufacturing practice compliance certificate for two API sites from Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, Japan. Indian markets will remain close on Thursday on account of ‘Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti’ holiday and on Friday on account of ‘Ram Navami’ holiday.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green while the European markets traded on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,800 and 25,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1681:877 while 135 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25590.95, up by 445.36 points or 1.77% after trading in a range of 25358.42 and 25614.32. 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 1.18%, while Small cap index up by 1.29%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 3.47%, Bankex up by 2.73%, Metal up by 2.30%, Realty up by 2.04%, Capital Goods up by 1.55%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 8.64%, ICICI Bank up by 6.12%, BHEL up by 5.31%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.82% and Maruti Suzuki up by 3.59%.

On the flip side, GAIL India down by 1.00% and Infosys down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that the country will receive  'above normal' monsoon this year with a fair distribution of rainfall across major parts of country, easing fears over farm and economic growth after two consecutive years of drought and said that it will be a “good year”.

Releasing its first monsoon forecast for the season, IMD Director General Laxman Singh Rathore said that the monsoon seasonal rainfall will be 106 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) with a model error of plus or minus 5 per cent. There is 94 percent probability that monsoon will be normal to excess this year. By and large, there will be fair distribution of monsoon across the country. Drought-hit Marathwada is also likely to receive good rainfall. However, North-East India and South-East India, particularly Tamil Nadu, may get slightly less than normal rainfall.

IMD has further predicted that the four monsoon months from June to September will have more than normal rainfall, which is likely to peak in the later half of the season. At the same time, it also issued a covert warning of floods, which could occur in case of an excess rainfall. The forecast, which comes after two straight years of drought - is likely to boost the farm sector, which has been weighed down by subdued agriculture output and falling farmers' income.

Anything less than 90 percent of the LPA is termed as a 'deficient' monsoon and 90-96 percent of the LPA is considered as 'below normal'. Monsoon is considered as 'normal' if the LPA is between 96-104 percent of the LPA. “Above normal” monsoon is between 104-110 per cent of the LPA and anything beyond 110 per cent of the LPA is considered as “excess”.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7837.45, up by 128.50 points or 1.67% after trading in a range of 7772.20 and 7848.75. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 8.47%, ICICI Bank up by 6.10%, Hindalco up by 5.27%, BHEL up by 4.87% and Bajaj Auto up by 4.20%.

On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.95%, GAIL India down by 0.78% and HCL Tech. down by 0.14% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; Jakarta Composite increased 6.11 points or 0.13% to 4,835.68, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 6.56 points or 0.38% to 1,721.56, Shanghai Composite increased 42.99 points or 1.42% to 3,066.64, Taiwan Weighted increased 120.9 points or 1.42% to 8,652.08, Nikkei 225 increased 452.43 points or 2.84% to 16,381.22 and Hang Seng increased 654.27 points or 3.19% to 21,158.71.

Seoul Composite was closed on account of ‘Assembly Members Election Day’ holiday.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 74.7 points or 1.2% to 6,317.09, France’s CAC increased 88 points or 2.02% to 4,433.91 and Germany’s DAX increased 186.6 points or 1.91% to 9,948.07.