Benchmarks trade in fine fettle; Nifty reclaims 8,750 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 8,750 (Nifty) and 28,300 (Sensex) levels, as traders took some encouragement with the RBI Governor Urjit Patel signaling a marked departure in policy approach from his predecessor’s unwavering focus on price stability. He said that the NPA situation is an important issue for the RBI in India. Some support also came with report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 243 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Global cues too remained supportive with most of the Asian counters trading in green at this point of time, encouraged by stronger U.S. economic data and a rise in oil prices, while growing prospects of a U.S. rate hike hit gold and boosted dollar to one-month highs versus the yen. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too were participating strongly in the rally.

The markets breadth remained in favor of advances, as there were 1,459 shares on the gaining side against 548 shares on the losing side while 86 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28317.63, up by 96.65 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 28238.09 and 28326.73. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.55%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.45%, Energy up by 2.00%, PSU up by 1.00%, Consumer Durables up by 0.81% and Capital Goods up by 0.79%, while IT down by 0.44% and TECK down by 0.27% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.73%, Reliance Industries up by 2.27%, ONGC up by 1.59%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.95% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.77%, Infosys down by 0.61%, Coal India down by 0.39%, Adani Ports &Special down by 0.26% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has given its approval for the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and African-Asian Rural Development Organisation (AARDO) for capacity building programmes in the field of rural development.

Under the MoU for the triennium 2015-2017 capacity building programmes for AARDO member countries will be organized every year at various institutions such as National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRD & PR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) among others.

The duration of each training programme will be of two to three weeks. The Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development Management Course at NIRD & PR under this scheme is for one year.

AARDO currently has 31 countries of the African-Asian region under its fold. India is one of the Founder Members of the Organization and is the largest contributor in terms of membership contribution of $ 141,100 apart from contributing by way of providing 70 fully paid training scholarships for Human Resource Development Programme under the Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) to the Organization.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8770.35, up by 26.40 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 8741.35 and 8774.80. There were 34 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Aurobindo Pharma up by 2.95%, GAIL India up by 2.77%, BPCL up by 2.71%, Reliance Industries up by 2.30% and BHEL up by 1.83%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 1.97%, Yes Bank down by 1.68%, Axis Bank down by 0.87%, Infosys down by 0.63% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 2.34 points or 0.14% to 1,665.26, Jakarta Composite increased 4.31 points or 0.08% to 5,424.96, KOSPI Index gained 7.46 points or 0.36% to 2,060.46, Nikkei 225 jumped 97.46 points or 0.58% to 16,916.70 and Hang Seng was up by 114.38 points or 0.48% to 23,902.69. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 15.82 points or 0.17% to 9,256.46.