Benchmarks hold early gains; Oil & Gas, PSU and CG lead

Indian equities continued to trade in fine fettle on back of strong buying in frontline counters in the late morning session. On the global front, Asian counters were trading mixed ahead of the crucial policy announcement from the US Federal Reserve later in the day. The Japanese market too was in green though yen has strengthened against other major currencies but stocks rose on speculation that stimulus measures from US and China will help revive the global economy. The traders were seen piling up position in Oil & Gas, PSU and CG sector, while selling was witnessed in HC and Metal sector. RIL, ONGC, Gail India, BPCL, Indian Oil Corp and HPCL from Oil & Gas pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. SBI, NTPC, Coal India, Power Grid Corp and Bharat Heavy Electricals from PSU pack were seen trading firm in green. HC majors Sun Pharma, Cipla, Lupin, Ranbaxy Lab, Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceuticals and Divi's Laboratories were capping the markets’ gains while Metal majors Jindal Steel, Sterlite Industries and JSW Steel too were pressurizing the markets.

Meanwhile, some amount of support came in from public sector oil marketing companies as shares of BPCL, HPCL and IOC all edged up by over a percent ahead of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meet on Friday to consider some big ticket decisions on disinvestment in five major public sector undertakings.

In the scrip specific development, Fiem Industries gained on inking MoU for technical collaboration with BrightLite Systems. SBI edged higher on inking partnership pact with Star Agriwarehousing & Collateral Management. Reliance Industries surged on plan to convert two closed oil wells into gas wells.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5400 and 18,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1166:856.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18041.48 up by 41.45 points or 0.23% after touching a high of 18049.58 and low of 17993.97. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.34% and Small cap index was up by 0.38%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Oil & Gas up by 1.06%, PSU up by 0.88%, CG up by 0.78%, Bankex up by 0.63% and Realty up by 0.29% were the gainers. While, HC down by 0.77% and Metal down by 0.37% were the losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.90%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.86%, ONGC up by 1.41%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.40% and ICICI Bank up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.11%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.05%, Jindal Steel down by 1.43%, Sterlite Industries down by 0.89% and Tata Motors down by 0.84% were the losers on the Sensex. 

Meanwhile, Apex industry body, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has expressed its deepest concern on the dismal Index of Industrial Production (IIP) figures and asked for early implementation of non-legislative policy measures. It said that continuing slowdown of the industrial sector, with manufacturing growth in the negative territory is even lower than expectations. IIP grew at 0.1 per cent in July, way below the growth rate of 3.7 percent in the corresponding period last year.

The apex industry body while saying that monetary intervention in the form of repo rate cut has been due for a while, stressed on the need to cut interest rates by the Reserve Bank in order to boost the sentiment.

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said that it is imperative that non legislative policy measures are announced at the earliest, which could help improve confidence levels in the economy. ‘At this juncture, announcements on FDI, fiscal consolidation, manufacturing policy implementation, etc would be of great help.’

Further, he said that impediment to manufacturing growth such as issues of land, power and business regulatory environment need to be addressed. The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75% of the index, witnessed a contraction in output by 0.2% in July, as against growth of 3.1% in the same month last year.  

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,440.55, up by 9.55 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 5,443.25 and 5,425.10. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 1.92%, Hero Moto Co up by 1.85%, GAIL up by 1.48%, ICICI Bank up by 1.46% and Bajaj-Auto up by 1.34%. On the flip side, CIPLA down by 2.37%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.84%, Jindal Steel down by 1.83%, Ranbaxy down by 1.75% and Sesa Goa down by 1.72% were the losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 up by 0.51%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.10%, Hang Seng index up by 0.04%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.01% and KLSE Composite up by 0.46% while Shanghai Composite down by 0.49%, Straits Times down by 0.43% and Kospi Composite Index down by 0.04% were the losers.