Indian equities trade on a firm note; Nifty above 8800 mark

Trading on a steady note Indian benchmarks are maintaining the one percent gain in Friday noon trades, as investors continue to pile up hefty positions almost across the counters amid firm cues from Asia and overnight gains on Wall Street. Sentiments remained sanguine right from the start of trade as Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeting to roll out the ambitious GST on April 1 next year and has directed that all steps required in this direction should be completed before that date. He has also said that GST Council would need to have intensive meetings to be able to make timely recommendations relating to its mandate. Investors also got some confidence with the report that India is expected to register a record food grain production during the 2016-17 crop year (July-June). The government has already set a target of 270.10 million tonnes of yield for the year, surpassing its previous record of 265.04 million tonnes in 2013-14. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 345 crore on September 15, 2016.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets holding their heads above water on the final session of the week, as investors turned optimistic after weak US retail sales data dimmed the prospects of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve at its meeting later this month. Retail sales declined a seasonally adjusted 0.3%. Industrial production in US contracted in August after a promising expansion in the previous two months. Gains in the Japanese market were led by financial stocks, while in Australia utilities were one of the standout sectors, rebounding after a record 12-day losing streak during which investors had dumped bond proxies. Meanwhile, US stocks ended higher on Thursday, as a rally in the tech sector helped to lift the broader market following a deluge of macroeconomic reports. 

Back home, surge in the local equity markets were led by rate sensitives, with banks leading the gains on hopes that the Reserve Bank of India may ease key policy rates at its meeting early next month. Metal shares also edged higher amid better demand prospect from China, the world’s biggest consumer of industrial metal, following the release of optimistic Chinese data that showed China's bank lending more than doubled in August from the previous month.  Stocks related to infra sector remained firm, as the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government will soon launch three expressway projects - Delhi-Amritsar-Katra, Delhi-Jaipur and Vadodara-Mumbai- soon at a cost of about Rs 1,32,000 crore. In scrip specific development, Nava Bharat Ventures has rallied after Reliance Mutual Fund (MF) bought more than 4% stake in the company for Rs 44 crore through open market. Further, Bharat Financial Inclusion has gained after the company completed a securitization transaction of Rs 108 crore on September 15, 2016.

The market breadth remained optimistic as there were 1665 shares on the gaining side against 741 shares on the losing side, while 156 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28743.92, up by 331.03 points or 1.17% after trading in a range of 28520.17 and 28778.64. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.16%, while Small cap index up by 1.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.78%, Auto up by 1.72%, Bankex up by 1.66%, PSU up by 1.39% and Power up by 1.36%, while there were no losing indices on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 3.20%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.91%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.76%, Reliance Industries up by 2.55% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.44%. On the flip side, TCS down by 0.30%, HDFC down by 0.23%, Asian Paints down by 0.04% and Wipro down by 0.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government will soon launch three expressway projects that would reduce travel time significantly. These projects are Delhi-Amritsar-Katra, Delhi-Jaipur and Vadodara-Mumbai at a cost of about Rs 132,000 crore. As per the plan, Amritsar could be reached via Delhi in up to 3 hours after completion of the Rs 60,000 crore Amritsar-Delhi expressway which will reduce travel duration by over 2 hours. Also on the anvil is a project connecting Jalandhar to Ajmer that will bring down the travel time to 5 hours.

Road transport and highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that three important expressway will soon start, and said that the travel distance to these destinations will reduce significantly once the projects are operationalised. In this regard meetings are scheduled with chief ministers of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan.

Earlier, the minister laid the foundation stones of 12 major National Highway (NH) projects worth Rs 10,596.19 crore in the state Ropar, Samrala and Jalandhar. The road projects also include four-laning of Jalandhar-Barnala, Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur, Ropar-Phagwara, Kharar-Kurali, Chandigarh-Kharar and Kharar-Ludhiana roads, besides an elevated road in Ludhiana city. The minister further said that the projects will provide world-class road connectivity to commuters between Doaba and Malwa, along with adjoining Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, in the next 2 years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8837.60, up by 95.05 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 8780.25 and 8847.65. There were 47 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 3.24%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.98%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.78%, Grasim Industries up by 2.64% and GAIL India up by 2.48%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 0.39%, Asian Paints down by 0.34%, Idea Cellular down by 0.30% and TCS down by 0.22% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; Jakarta Composite gained 0.57% and Nikkei 225 was up by 0.53%, while Shanghai Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Malaysia Stock Exchange, Seoul Stock Exchange and Taiwan Stock Exchange were closed on account of National holiday.