Markets extend gains to trade at intraday highs; Nifty regains 7,900 mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended their gains in noon deals to trade at intraday high levels, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 7,900 (Nifty) and 25,800 (Sensex) levels as investors took to hefty across the board buying. The sudden spike-up witnessed on Dalal-Street was mainly on the back of buying in banking counters. Traders also took some encouragement with report of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India touched the highest ever mark of $51 billion during the April-February period of last fiscal ended March 31.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time as raw materials shares declined and Tokyo equities slumped before this week's central bank meetings in the US and Japan. Back home, buying in realty counter too aided sentiments with the RBI governor Raghuram Rajan putting the onus on real estate developers, asking them to reduce prices to encourage more people to buy properties. The jewellary and gold stocks too remained on buyers’ radar, as the government has further extended the deadline for jewellers to get their businesses registered with central excise department.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25816.85, up by 137.92 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 25549.05 and 25821.02. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40%, while Small cap index up by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.32%, Telecom up by 0.69%, Basic Materials up by 0.67%, Finance up by 0.64% and Healthcare up by 0.61%, while FMCG down by 0.33% and Consumer Durables down by 0.32% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.73%, BHEL up by 1.51%, Tata Motors up by 1.23%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.18% and Asian Paints up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.57%, ICICI Bank down by 1.42%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.21%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.03% and NTPC down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has received $51 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the April-February period of last fiscal 2015-16India has record inflows of FDI and has touched the 'highest ever' mark during the period. The FDI numbers indicates that the government has been able to create a suitable climate in which the foreign investors feel confident that interest is protected.

However, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek Abhishek said that ease of doing business is critical for creating a suitable business climate and the government is a making lot of efforts to improve it. He also said that protection of creativity and innovation is important to create a suitable climate in the country for technology to be developed and for technology to come from outside.

In 2011-12, India had attracted FDI worth $46.55 billion. In 2014-15, it was $44.29 billion. This FDI includes equity, re-invested earnings and other capital. The country need growth rate of double digits for the next three decades to improve the quality of life and eliminate poverty but that requires lot of efforts in investment side, IPR side and at other fronts.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7902.05, up by 47.00 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 7822.55 and 7907.35. There were 38 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 4.32%, Hindalco up by 4.17%, Indusind Bank up by 3.06%, Tata Steel up by 1.71% and BHEL up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.49%, ICICI Bank down by 1.40%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.21%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.08% and HCL Tech. down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 86.02 points or 0.49% to 17,353.28, Jakarta Composite declined 79.94 points or 1.64% to 4,798.93, Hang Seng slipped 71.22 points or 0.33% to 21,233.22 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 18.49 points or 1.08% to 1,696.02.

On the flip side, KOSPI Index increased 5.08 points or 0.25% to 2,019.63, Shanghai Composite gained 18.39 points or 0.62% to 2,965.06 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 21.29 points or 0.25% to 8,581.57.