Benchmarks continue to trade in green in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. Sentiments remained up-beat after India Meteorological Department (IMD) stated that monsoon rains in India were 15 percent above average in the week ended August 10, 2016. The weather office has retained its forecast for an above-average monsoon this year, boosting hopes of a rise in farm output and income after two years of drought. Besides, firm global cues coupled with the appreciation in rupee value against the dollar added to the optimistic sentiments. Meanwhile, market participants will be eyeing the key macro data of IIP and CPI inflation slated to be announced after the market hours. In scrip specific development, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Hindalco were trading in fine fettle post Q1 numbers, while Bharti Airtel edged down marginally after completing a spectrum trading deal with Aircel in seven circles.

On the global front, European market were trading mostly in red with weaker miners offsetting gains in companies such as A.P. Moller-Maersk, which rose sharply following its earnings update.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28145.03, up by 285.43 points or 1.02% after trading in a range of 27900.91 and 28161.43. 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 0.85%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.10%, Metal up by 1.47%, PSU up by 1.38%, Capital Goods up by 0.84% and Power up by 0.74%, while Realty down by 0.10%, IT down by 0.09%, TECK down by 0.05% and Oil & Gas down by 0.00% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 8.22%, Axis Bank up by 3.41%, Tata Motors up by 2.57%, Adani Ports &Special up by 2.15% and Tata Steel up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 1.53%, Asian Paints down by 0.78%, Infosys down by 0.70%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.67% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, asserting that there is no shortage of coal in the country, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has said that coal stock for 23 days is available with thermal power stations, he added that to significantly enhance coal production to meet the coal requirement, multi-dimensional efforts are in process by Coal India (CIL). Further, CIL has set a production target of 598.61 million tonnes (MT) for the current financial year, marking an increase of 11 percent over actual coal production of 538.75 MT last year.

The Minister said a special window of e-auction exclusively for power sector has been opened to make coal available to those power plants which are stressed or in short supply as they do not have coal blocks or linkages or long-term Power Purchase Agreements. In 2015-16, 13.79 MT and 2016-17, 12.448 MT of coal was available through auction in special e-auction for power sector.

Goyal said coal supplies to power utility sector was monitored regularly by an inter-ministerial sub-group comprising representatives of Ministries of Power, Coal and Railways constituted by the Infrastructure Constraints Review Committee of the Cabinet Secretariat. The sub-group takes various operational decisions for meeting any contingent situations relating to the power sector including critical coal stock position, besides several other measures to ensure regular coal supply to the thermal power plants.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8663.70, up by 71.55 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 8604.45 and 8675.20. There were 37 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 8.10%, Hindalco up by 3.44%, Axis Bank up by 3.14%, Tata Motors up by 2.63% and Yes Bank up by 2.53%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 2.53%, Bosch down by 2.24%, Idea Cellular down by 1.83%, Cipla down by 1.74% and HCL Tech. down by 0.93% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green, KOSPI Index increased 1.67 points or 0.08% to 2,050.47 FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 4.7 points or 0.28% to 1,683.50, Taiwan Weighted increased 18.56 points or 0.2% to 9,150.39, Shanghai Composite increased 48.03 points or 1.6% to 3,050.67, Nikkei 225 increased 184.8 points or 1.1% to 16,919.92 and Hang Seng increased 186.36 points or 0.83% to 22,766.9. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 16.33 points or 0.3% to 5,402.76.

European markets were trading mostly in red, Germany’s DAX decreased 36.74 points or 0.34% to 10,706.10 and France’s CAC decreased 4.37 points or 0.1% to 4,499.58. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 4.54 points or 0.07% to 6,919.25.