Firm trade continues on Dalal Street

Key barometer gauges continued their firm trade in early afternoon session, amid buying witnessed in frontline blue-chip stocks such as Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddys Lab, Cipla and Bharti Airtel. Sentiment on the street remained positive with international rating agency Moody’s report which expecting growth to revive next year, has said a 7.6 per cent GDP expansion can result in corporates reporting a pre-tax profit growth of 5-6 per cent over the next 12-18 months. Traders were also taking support from report that investors pumped over Rs 51,000 crore into various mutual fund schemes in October after pulling out more than Rs 16,000 crore in the preceding month. The domestic sentiment was buoyed due a firm trend in Asian market together with rupee appreciation. In scrip specific development, Yes Bank was up by over a percent on raising $400 mn through two Syndicated loan transactions in Taiwan and Japan.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as the overnight gains on Wall Street as well as upbeat economic data from Germany and the U.S. helped investors shrug off worries over political uncertainty in Germany. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33524.88, up by 164.98 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 33437.61 and 33557.23. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.43%, while Small cap index was up by 0.65%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.83%, Consumer Durables up by 1.54%, Telecom up by 1.48%, Energy up by 1.18%, Oil & Gas up by 1.00%, while Realty down by 0.28% was the sole losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.47%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 3.15%, Cipla up by 2.73%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.48% and Lupin up by 2.09%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.36%, Axis Bank down by 0.76%, TCS down by 0.73%, Coal India down by 0.58% and Asian Paints down by 0.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to help India increase its power generation capacity through cleaner, renewable energy sources, the union government and World Bank have signed a $98 million loan pact along with a $2 million grant agreement. Under the agreement, the Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project will finance the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) to provide sub-loans to states to invest in various solar parks.

The IREDA will utilise the funding under this project to develop the common infrastructure such as power pooling substations, intra-park transmission infrastructure and provide access to roads, water supply and drainage. While some states intend to provide a full range of infrastructure services to the selected private or public sector developers, others plan to provide only pooling stations to facilitate internal evacuation. The solar parks will be mostly under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energys (MNRE) Solar Park Scheme. The first two solar parks are in the Rewa and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh, with targeted installed capacities of 750 MW and 250 MW respectively. Other states where potential solar parks could be supported under this project are in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana.

This project will help establish large-scale solar parks and support the government’s plan to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power out of a total renewable-energy target of 175 GW by 2022. The government is committed to set-up an enabling environment for solar technology penetration in the country. With about 331 GW of installed capacity, India's power system is among the largest in the world. Yet, the per capita electricity consumption is less than one-third of the global average.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10344.25, up by 45.50 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 10323.75 and 10356.75. There were 37 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 3.30%, Sun Pharma up by 3.15%, Cipla up by 2.60%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.43% and Lupin up by 2.12%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.32%, TCS down by 0.82%, HCL Tech. down by 0.78%, Axis Bank down by 0.74% and Eicher Motors down by 0.74% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.76 points or 0.1% to 1,720.12, KOSPI Index added 3.03 points or 0.12% to 2,530.70, Shanghai Composite surged 19.49 points or 0.57% to 3,411.89, Taiwan Weighted was up by 114.69 points or 1.08% to 10,779.24, Nikkei 225 rose 154.72 points or 0.7% to 22,416.48 and Hang Seng increased 310.6 points or 1.06% to 29,570.91.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 21.73 points or 0.36% to 6,031.55.