Bourses soar to day’s high on sustained buying activities

Extending their early gains, the local equity markets reached at their intra-day high levels in early afternoon session on the back of sustained buying activities by the investors.  Sentiments on the street improved further with UN expert’s statement that India can achieve an eight percent growth rate for the next two decades by promoting investment and improving the living conditions of its people. Additional support came with data showing that India’s exports rose at a faster clip in November, reversing the contraction in the previous month. Exports grew 30.6 percent in November from a year ago, while imports rose 19.6 percent. Besides, trends from the assembly election results showed the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) winning in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, too brought some cheer on the street. At day’s high points, the frontline gauges were trading comfortably above the crucial 10,400 (Nifty) and 33,750 (Sensex) marks. Broader indices, too prolonging their gaining spree and were trading with gains in the range of 0.90%-1.20%. In scrip specific development, JSW Holdings was up by over half percent after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased the foreign investment limit for investment by Foreign Portfolios Investors (FPIs) in the company from 24 per cent to 49 per cent of its paid up capital.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red. Japan's exports rose 16 percent in November from a year earlier driven by robust overseas demand for cars and manufacturing equipment that is helping to sustain the longest economic expansion in more than 15 years. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33751.00, up by 288.03 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 32595.63 and 33762.04. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.18%, while Small cap index was up by 0.94%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.35%, Consumer Disc up by 1.43%, Auto up by 1.42%, Healthcare up by 1.34% and Telecom up by 1.15%, while there were no losing indices on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.92%, SBI up by 2.80%, Sun Pharma up by 2.78%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.51% and Tata Steel up by 1.99%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.02%, NTPC down by 0.28%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.22%, ITC down by 0.19% and Power Grid down by 0.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval to a special package for employment generation in the leather and footwear sector entailing expenditure of Rs 2,600 crore over three financial years up to 2019-20. The special package has the capability to generate 3.24 lakh new jobs in 3 years and assist in formalization of 2 lakh jobs as cumulative impact in footwear, leather and accessories sector.

The package involves implementation of Central Sector Scheme ‘Indian Footwear, Leather & Accessories Development Programme’. The package also includes measures for simplification of labour laws and incentives for employment generation. These include enhancing the scope of Section 80JJAA of the Income Tax Act for providing deduction to an Indian company engaged in manufacture of goods in a factory towards additional wages paid for three years to new workmen.

In addition, the provisions of minimum 240 days employment in a year to a workman under Section 80JJAA would be further relaxed to 150 days for footwear, leather and accessories sector considering the seasonal nature of this industry. The scheme would lead to development of infrastructure for the leather sector; address environmental concerns specific to the leather sector and facilitate additional investments, job creation and production. That apart, the enhanced tax incentive would attract large-scale investments in the sector and reforms in labour laws in view of seasonal nature of the sector will support economies of scale.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10430.40, up by 97.15 points or 0.94% after trading in a range of 10074.80 and 10430.95. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 4.26%, Hindalco up by 3.83%, SBI up by 2.90%, Sun Pharma up by 2.83% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.81%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.26%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.03%, Wipro down by 0.98%, BPCL down by 0.91% and HPCL down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite decreased 30.62 points or 0.5% to 6,088.80, Shanghai Composite was down by 10.02 points or 0.31% to 3,256.12, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 3.43 points or 0.2% to 1,749.64 and KOSPI Index dipped 0.19 points or 0.01% to 2,481.88.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 15.08 points or 0.14% to 10,506.52, Hang Seng was up by 223.03 points or 0.77% to 29,071.14 and Nikkei 225 rose 348.55 points or 1.55% to 22,901.77.