Markets continue to trade in green in noon session

Benchmark equity indices despite some choppiness continue to trade in green in noon session led by gains in frontline blue chip stocks such as GAIL India, ONGC, Cipla and Wipro among others. Sentiments remained up-beat with global ratings agency CRISIL predicting a strong boost to India’s domestic consumption in 2016-17 led by implementation of 7th pay panel’s recommendations, with reforms like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to benefit the uptick. Firm trend in the Asian market too aided to optimistic milieu. The street is eyeing RBI's monetary policy review today that will be the first by the newly-set up six-member monetary policy committee as well as by new Governor Urjit Patel. Traders were seen piling up positions in Oil & Gas, PSU, IT, FMCG and TECK stocks, while some selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Banking sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Hero MotoCorp advanced 1.5 percent on reporting an 11 percent rise in September sales.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green as concerns about Deutsche Bank’s financial health eased and Japan’s quarterly survey showed companies lowered their inflation outlook. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28284.32, up by 41.03 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 28251.37 and 28402.65. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.04%, PSU up by 0.63%, IT up by 0.57%, FMCG up by 0.39% and TECK up by 0.35%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.62%, Capital Goods down by 0.58%, Bankex down by 0.12% and Auto down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 5.69%, ONGC up by 3.73%, Cipla up by 1.35%, Wipro up by 0.95% and Reliance Industries up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.32%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.33%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.90%, Axis Bank down by 0.72% and HDFC down by 0.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to create employment across small cities, government has given its in-principal approval for 9,000 seats in business process outsourcing (BPO) units. Information Technology (IT) Ministry Ravi Shankar Prasad said India holds 38 per cent share in the global BPO industry and stage is set for a massive growth in the sector. He added that, running BPO operations in big cities has become expensive due to rising cost of real estate and other essential amenities. To mitigate this cost factor the BPO industry should move to small towns where these overheads are lesser.

More than 50 companies will set up BPO operations at 60 locations in 18 states and 2 union territories, including Varanasi, Unnao, Patna, Amravati, Dhule, Siliguri, Cuttak, Dalsinghsarai and Muzaffarpur. Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) Joint Secretary Rajiv Kumar said Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) have given in-principal approval for 9,020 seats and is expected to finalise 3,000 more in third round of bidding that started from Oct 3.

The Centre under its BPO promotion scheme will provide financial support for total of 48,300 seats to be set up across country with total outlay of Rs 493 crore. The scheme has provision to provide 50 per cent of actual expenditure with cap of Rs 1 lakh per seat.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8751.15, up by 13.05 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 8739.20 and 8778.30. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 5.56%, ONGC up by 3.67%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.41%, HCL Tech. up by 1.39% and Tata Power up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 2.89%, Coal India down by 2.30%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.54%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.41% and Indusind Bank down by 1.05% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in green; Jakarta Composite increased 2.65 points or 0.05% to 5,466.57, KOSPI Index added 11.23 points or 0.55% to 2,054.86, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 11.5 points or 0.7% to 1,664.05, Hang Seng jumped 23.38 points or 0.1% to 23,607.81, Taiwan Weighted was up by 53.57 points or 0.58% to 9,287.77 and Nikkei 225 increased 136.98 points or 0.83% to 16,735.65.