Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Key benchmark indices continued to trade in positive territory in early afternoon session, backed by sustained buying mainly in PSU, Telecom, Realty and Basic Materials stocks. The sentiments remained on positive note with SBI’s report that the government is likely to achieve its fiscal deficit target of 3.2 per cent this financial year as the budgeted disinvestment receipts are on track to realise Rs 72,500 crore. Some solace also came with Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s statement that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will remain as a Good and Simple Tax in the coming days to come and will prove to be as a better medium for small traders and businessmen. Furthermore, expectations of encouraging earnings from more blue-chip companies alongside a firming trend at other Asian bourses too buoyed the trading sentiments. In the currency front, rupee strengthened marginally against the US dollar in early trade tracking gains in the Asian currencies market. In scrip specific development, Vascon Engineers was up by over three and half percent after receiving LoI worth Rs 70.40 crore from Sriram Educational Trust.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green even as Wall Street fell from record levels, while currencies kept to narrow ranges ahead of key economic events. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32633.33, up by 126.61 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 32534.21 and 32670.37. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.35%, while Small cap index was up by 0.87%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.70%, Telecom up by 1.32%, Realty up by 1.32%, Basic Materials up by 1.30% and Power up by 1.07%, while Capital Goods down by 0.14% and Healthcare down by 0.10% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 3.36%, ONGC up by 2.71%, NTPC up by 2.46%, ICICI Bank up by 1.66% and Tata Steel up by 1.45%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.28%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.83%, Sun Pharma down by 0.76%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.59% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, upstream petroleum regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has said that as many as 51 proposals seeking about 60,000 square kilometre of area for oil & gas exploration have been bid for in India's first auction under a new bidding mechanism - Open Acreage Licensing (OAL) policy. To raise domestic production and cut excessive dependence on imports, the country opened 2.8 million square km of sedimentary basins for oil and gas exploration in July.

DGH has stated that the OAL policy, which allows an explorer to study the data available and bid for blocks of their choice, is witnessing an encouraging response from the industry. OAL replaces the old system of government carving out areas and bidding them out. OAL allows investors to carve out their own areas and put in an expression of interest (EoI). Once an EoI is received for an area, it is put on competitive bidding and any company offering the government maximum share of oil and gas is awarded the block.

Under OAL, companies can carve out any area that is currently not under any licensee, and evince interest for doing exploration and production. Once an area is selected, the government will put it up for bidding and any firm offering the maximum share of oil or gas produced from the area would be awarded the block. Till now, the government has been selecting and demarcating areas it feels can be offered for bidding in an exploration licensing round. So far, 256 blocks had been offered for exploration and production since 2000. The last bid round happened in 2010. Of these, 254 blocks were awarded, but as many as 156 have already been relinquished due to poor prospectivity.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10223.35, up by 38.50 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 10187.85 and 10237.75. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 4.75%, SBI up by 3.01%, ONGC up by 2.68%, NTPC up by 2.40% and Vedanta up by 2.16%. On the flip side, Bosch down by 1.41%, Indusind Bank down by 1.38%, Tata Motors down by 1.37%, HCL Tech. down by 1.19% and Sun Pharma down by 0.90% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 0.44 points or 0.02% to 2,490.49, Shanghai Composite surged 4.18 points or 0.12% to 3,384.88, Taiwan Weighted was up by 8.57 points or 0.08% to 10,743.78, Jakarta Composite added 8.83 points or 0.15% to 5,958.86 and Nikkei 225 increased 108.52 points or 0.5% to 21,805.17.

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 157.62 points or 0.56% to 28,148.26 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.93 points or 0.05% to 1,740.54.