Bourses trade near highs of the day; Nifty nears 8900 mark

Showing a steady trend the Indian markets in the early noon session continue to trade near the highs of the day, with broad based buying supporting the markets on the first day of the holiday truncated week. Both the major indices were trading at their fresh 52 weeks high, while Sensex was holding the 28800 level, Nifty was comfortably sailing over the 8850 mark, coming very close to its another crucial psychological level of 8900. Markets across the region were in jubilant mood after lower-than-expected non-farm payrolls data reduced the fears of a US Federal Reserve rate hike. Markets were also getting some support with surge in Indian rupee against the US dollar on selling of the American currency by exporters and banks amid sustained foreign fund inflows and a weak dollar against other currencies overseas. Meanwhile, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has expressed his hopes that the process of cleaning up banks in the country will be finished and government will continue to prioritise “low inflation”.

Back on street, barring telecom all the sectoral indices were in good health with some even gaining close to two percent led by banking which is in the jubilant mood since morning. Other gainers include realty, oil & gas, consumer durable, capital goods and auto sector stocks. The steel stocks too have recovered from the early cautiousness that came with some reports that government is unlikely to further extend the minimum import price (MIP) on certain steel products beyond October 4 as these items could be covered under anti-dumping duty.

In scrip specific movement, IT firm Mindtree slumped to its 52 week low after the company warned that its revenue and margins in the September quarter will decline sequentially. The decline is expected due to cross-currency movements, project cancellations and slower ramp-ups in a few large clients across different verticals and continued weakness in its UK-based subsidiary Bluefin.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28813.21, up by 281.10 points or 0.99% after trading in a range of 28631.27 and 28837.88. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.35%, while Small cap index up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.01%, Auto up by 1.60%, Consumer Durables up by 1.31%, Realty up by 1.27%, Oil & Gas up by 1.10%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 3.89%, Tata Steel up by 2.61%, Tata Motors up by 2.58%, GAIL India up by 2.21% and ICICI Bank up by 2.09%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.56%, TCS down by 1.17%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.58%, Wipro down by 0.44% and Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in what could come as a major boost to the country’s infrastructure sector and the economy as on whole, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) reportedly will soon clear projects worth Rs 20 lakh crore. The report which is yet not confirmed has stated that the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) that works under the Prime Minister's Office has cleared 276 projects, stalled due to various reasons accounting for investment of nearly Rs 10 lakh crore, in the last two years, while another 258 projects, with investment of more than Rs 10 lakh crore, will be cleared soon.

Since 80% of clearance problems are state-level, PMO has reduced the number of such clearances from 63 to 31, and has asked all states to digitise the process of applying for these clearances. PMG, which was formed by the UPA government and put under the cabinet secretariat, was shifted to the PMO in September 2015. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants more private sector entrepreneurs to use the PMG portal. Roughly 20% of projects assessed by PMG are from the private sector.

States that have benefitted most from PMG clearances are Odisha, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. All states have been asked to create their own version of PMG portal for investment below Rs 1,000 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8894.25, up by 84.60 points or 0.96% after trading in a range of 8848.45 and 8899.60. There were 42 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining, while two stocks remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 3.89%, Yes Bank up by 3.29%, Indusind Bank up by 2.73%, Tata Motors up by 2.62% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.57%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.52%, TCS down by 1.23%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.59%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.55% and Wipro down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green, KOSPI Index was up by 6.45 points or 0.31% to 2,066.53, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 7.89 points or 0.47% to 1,685.97, Shanghai Composite increased by 15.15 points or 0.49% to 3,087.25, Nikkei 225 was higher by 44.35 points or 0.26% to 17,081.98, Taiwan Weighted gained 91.72 points or 1.01% to 9,181.85 and Hang Seng surged by 94.82 points or 0.4% to 23,744.37. On the other hand Jakarta Composite decreased by 8.67 points or 0.16% to 5,348.28.