Benchmarks strengthen further in late noon session

The Nifty and the Sensex wiping off their initial losses continue to trade in green in late noon session on the back of buying by funds and retail investors amid firm cues from the Asian markets. Sentiments remain unbeaten after Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth a net Rs 31.96 crore on Friday. Markets also got some support with Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das’ statement that the country’s GDP growth is likely to touch 8 per cent in the current fiscal 2016-17, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s has stated that India has received $55 billion in FDI in the last two years, noting enhanced economic engagement with countries across the world has been a major priority area of the government’s foreign policy.

On the global front, Asian stocks were trading in green after two opinion polls published on Saturday showed the 'Remain' camp was gathering momentum in the Brexit vote. Oil extended gains and the yen weakened against the dollar on eased Brexit concerns.

Back home, Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan’s decision of not going for a second term and bow out in September has impacted the rupee, however it too has recovered about 20 paisa on some central bank intervention in the foreign exchange market to curb volatility.

In scrip specific development, shares of information technology firms surged after weakness in rupee buoyed investor appetite for these stocks. A weak rupee is considered beneficial for IT firms, which export their products to markets across the world, thereby earning higher revenues in rupee terms. Real estate stocks were up after Sebi relaxed rules on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) by allowing them to invest more in under-construction projects.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26793.67, up by 167.76 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 26447.88 and 26830.48. 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 0.19%, while Small cap index was up by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.73%, TECK up by 1.60%, Realty up by 1.48%, Capital Goods up by 1.00%, Consumer Durables up by 0.79%

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.53%, ONGC up by 1.95%, TCS up by 1.94%, Infosys up by 1.86% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.80%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.06%, Asian Paints fall by 0.86%, Coal India fell by 0.57%, ICICI Bank drop by 0.29% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, following NITI Aayog’s sectoral presentations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Month, which highlighted sluggishness in many infrastructure areas, Narendra Modi has set targets for infrastructure sectors and the same has been communicated to ministries of railways, roads, ports, civil aviation and others, with detailed timelines. Modi has set targets with an aim to step up infrastructure investment and speed up execution and said that the targets are to be delivered by end of the financial year to effect visible change on ground.

Prime Minister has identified 26 action points under 12 heads for roads and 36 action points for railways under about a dozen heads that need quick action by ministries to implement them in a time-bound manner.  These will now be regularly monitored by NITI Aayog and reviewed by the Prime Minister himself on a quarterly basis.

Under the targets set, the Indian Railways has been asked to increase the total lines commissioned from 7-8 km per day to 10 km per day by financial year 2016-17 and 15 km per day by financial year 2018-19. Modi has asked the ministry of road transport and highways to finalise highway network expansion and operations plan for next three years by September this year, while accelerating the rate of construction of roads in the North-East by six months to November 2016. Modi has also asked the ministries for roads and finance to speed up finalisation of PPP renegotiation framework and public contracts bill by September 2016.

Similar targets have been set for others as well, such as the number of villages that have to be electrified where the deadlines range from three months to up to three years for different key actions. Further, some big-ticket interventions including raising long-term funding for road projects, developing a contractor rating system that would incentivise early project completion, bringing about organisational reforms in Indian Railways, improvement in governance structure by setting up an independent regulator to correct tariff imbalance in railways.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8218.15, up by 47.95 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 8107.35 and 8229.90. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.57%, HCL Tech. up by 2.49%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.38%, TCS up by 2.06% and ONGC up by 1.97%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.19%, Asian Paints down by 1.06%, Eicher Motors down by 0.69%, Coal India down by 0.46% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.31% were the top losers.

Shanghai Composite increased 3.7 points or 0.13% to 2,888.81. FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 8.08 points or 0.5% to 1,632.26. Jakarta Composite rise by 10.65 points or 0.22% to 4,845.80. KOSPI Index rose to 27.72 points or 1.42% to 1,981.12. Taiwan Weighted increased 57.84 points or 0.68% to 8,625.92. Hang Seng high 344.91 points or 1.71% to 20,514.89. Nikkei 225 increased 365.64 points or 2.34% to 15,965.30.