Markets hold strength in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued its firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The gain is on account of recent string of positive corporate results which raised tentative hopes about an improving domestic economy. Sentiment was also boosted after a weaker-than-expected US jobs report on Friday left some economists anticipating only one interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year. Traders were seen piling position in Bankex, Realty and Capital Goods sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Thyrocare Technologies was trading firm after the stock debuted at Rs 662, on the bourses, a premium of 48.43% to the Initial Public Offer (IPO) price. Inox Wind was trading firm after the wind power solutions company on Friday reported a 77.5 percent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 209.2 crore for the quarter ended March 2016. UltraTech Cement was trading in green after the company stated that its board approved a proposal for raising foreign investment limit in the firm.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red 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 1585:906 while 162 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25572.65, up by 344.15 points or 1.36% after trading in a range of 25302.86 and 25608.59. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.03%, while Small cap index up by 0.97%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.77%, Realty up by 1.53%, Capital Goods up by 1.52%, FMCG up by 1.52%, Consumer Durables up by 1.02%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.76%, ICICI Bank up by 2.61%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.28%, HDFC up by 2.26% and ITC up by 1.80%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.47%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.44%, Tata Motors down by 0.36%, BHEL down by 0.16% and Sun Pharma down by 0.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing its hope, the government expects that the high incidence of zero balance accounts in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) will come down substantially, with the help of the government welfare schemes switching to the direct benefit transfer (DBT) regime soon. The issue of zero balance accounts has dogged the government’s ambitious financial inclusion scheme that was launched in August 2014, with critics pointing out that bank accounts are not sufficient if there is no activity associated with them.

With the help of the schemes such as DBT PAHAL or cash transfer for cooking gas kicking off , in the past one year, zero-balance accounts have substantially reduced from a level of 45 per cent in September 2015. Of the 21.68 crore bank accounts opened under the PMJDY scheme, a quarter or 26.39 per cent have zero balance.  Insurance cover under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Suraksha Yojana is also linked to these accounts and will improve the transaction status.

In the year 2015-16, the government had transferred Rs 61, 824.30 crore through DBT in 59 schemes to beneficiary accounts. Under this, transfer towards Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was Rs 25,861.77 crore, and Rs 21, 421 crore for DBT PAHAL. The government has now decided to include all Central sector schemes as well as third party transactions such as payments to workers under various schemes through the DBT.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7838.60, up by 105.15 points or 1.36% after trading in a range of 7753.55 and 7843.90. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 3.41%, Yes Bank up by 3.02%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.01%, Bosch up by 2.72% and Bank of Baroda up by 2.52%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.44%, Hindalco down by 0.38%, Idea Cellular down by 0.18%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.14% and BPCL down by 0.13% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite decreased 81.13 points or 2.79% to 2,832.11, Jakarta Composite decreased 75.7 points or 1.57% to 4,746.89, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 15.11 points or 0.92% to 1,634.25, Taiwan Weighted decreased 14.6 points or 0.18% to 8,131.83 and KOSPI Index decreased 8.9 points or 0.45% to 1,967.81.

On the other hand, Hang Seng increased 46.94 points or 0.23% to 20,156.81 and Nikkei 225 increased 109.31 points or 0.68% to 16,216.03.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 17.51 points or 0.29% to 6,143.21, France’s CAC increased 18.69 points or 0.43% to 4,319.93 and Germany’s DAX increased 77.64 points or 0.79% to 9,947.59.