Bourses maintain upbeat mood in afternoon deals

Indian equity indices maintained their upbeat mood in early afternoon session, as buying momentum in the equities persisted. Traders remained in jubilant mood with Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that India can achieve a growth rate of 10%. He added that some key reforms are needed to accelerate India's Growth Rate. Some optimism also spread among the investors with RBI’s data on performance of private corporate sector showing that the India’s manufacturing sector witnessed an improvement in sales growth in the third quarter this fiscal on annual basis, though net profit has remained subdued due to lack of support from other income. Besides, sustained buying in stocks from IT, TECK and Telecom counters aided the sentiment. In scrip specific development, White Organic Agro was up by around five percent on receiving continual order of Aloe Vera Pulp from Patanjali Ayurveda for an additional 300 tonnes.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following sharp losses in New York as a massive data breach at Facebook fueled fears of a regulatory crackdown on the technology sector. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33081.14, up by 158.02 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 32810.86 and 33102.74. There were 26 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.48%, while Small cap index was up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.13%, TECK up by 1.07%, Telecom up by 0.88%, Consumer Durables up by 0.85% and Consumer Disc up by 0.55%, while Utilities down by 0.10% and Realty down by 0.03% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.95%, Wipro up by 2.10%, Sun Pharma up by 1.83%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.41% and Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.20%, NTPC down by 0.99%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.59%, ITC down by 0.31% and Axis Bank down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has indicated that the Indian airlines have registered 24.14% growth in domestic passengers during the month of February, on the back of increased tourist-season demand. It noted that in February, domestic airlines flew 1.07 crore passengers compared to 86.55 lakh passengers flown during the corresponding period last year.

According to the data, the SpiceJet continued to maintain its pole position on the load factor front by flying its planes 96.3% seats full, followed by IndiGo, which flew its planes with 91.8% seats full. Vistara came third by flying its planes with 91.2% seats full. Besides, the SpiceJet also took the lead on 'on-time performance' at 78%, while the IndiGo clocked 74.8% and the Vistara closely following third at 73.8%. The on-time performance of the Air India was at 68.8%. The performance was computed based on data from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports.

 The DGCA further revealed that IndiGo led the industry with the highest market share of 39.9%, followed by Jet Airways (14.6%) and Air India (13.2%). However, the data stated that more number of flights were cancelled in February this year (0.89%) as compared to the corresponding period last year (0.39%), affecting 44,294 passengers. It cited technical factors as the prime reason for the cancellations.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10151.55, up by 57.30 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 10049.10 and 10152.80. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 4.83%, Tata Steel up by 4.23%, Eicher Motors up by 3.01%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.93% and HCL Tech. up by 2.20%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 5.22%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.29%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 1.15%, NTPC down by 0.96% and Cipla down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 99.93 points or 0.47% to 21,380.97, Jakarta Composite was down by 69.12 points or 1.1% to 6,220.45, Taiwan Weighted shed 36.06 points or 0.33% to 11,010.84 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 0.26 points or 0.01% to 1,847.68.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 9.57 points or 0.29% to 3,288.82, KOSPI Index was up by 10.49 points or 0.42% to 2,485.52 and Hang Seng added 12.59 points or 0.04% to 31,526.35.