Markets continue firm trade; Nifty above 5,650 level

After a firm start and a subsequent retreat, Indian equity markets are currently trading firm amid sustained buying across the board. In currency markets, Indian rupee recovered from earlier session’s losses on the back of dollar selling by exporters and banks. Investors were waiting for government's borrowing plans for the second-half of the fiscal year, at the meeting with the RBI. On sectoral front FMCG, realty, bank and healthcare stocks were edging higher, presumably due to some short-covering ahead of expiry of near month derivatives contracts. Metal stocks were trading mixed, while oil and information technology stocks were quite subdued. Meanwhile, Tata Power has jumped 5%, ahead of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s final hearing on the tariff revision plea of the company for the 4,000 MW Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project. In global markets, all Asian shares were trading in green. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,531 shares on the gaining side against 882 shares on the losing side while 136 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,726.96 up by 94.79 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 18,735.95 and 18,644.77. There were 22 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index, while one remain unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.82% and Small cap index was up by 0.76%.

The top gainers on the BSE sectoral space were, CG up by 1.26%, Auto up by 1.07%, Power up by 1.00%, CD up by 0.74% and FMCG up by 0.74%. While IT down by 0.25% and Oil & Gas down by 0.04% were the top losers on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 5.70%, L&T up by 2.35%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.96%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.77% and Jindal Steel up by 1.43%. On the other hand, BHEL down by 1.40%, Wipro down by 1.22%, Infosys down by 1.01%, Coal India down by 0.96% and ONGC down by 0.50% were the top losers on the Sensex.

 Meanwhile, the Government plans to dilute rules for permitting domestic carriers to fly abroad. It is also considering seeking for more financial information from existing and new airlines that seek out to fly in international skies. As per the current regulation, an Indian carrier must have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft and have flown in the domestic skies for 5 years before it is permitted to start international flights.

The need to liberalize the rules comes in the wake of several international airlines from the West and East Asia starting international flights from the day they start operations. The financial disclosures of potential airlines should reveal their knowledge of the aviation sector's dynamics and illustrate that they possess adequate liquidity to cover aviation business start-up and initial operational costs. The decision to include financial scrutiny comes following Kingfisher’s decision to withdraw all its international flights due to its poor financial health.

The Kerala Government too is eager to launch an airline to operate flights between the State and West Asia. The operations from Kerala are now being dominated either by foreign carriers like Emirates, GulfAir and Air India Express. Foreign airlines control about 65% of all global traffic from India and in recent years several start-up airlines from the Gulf and Southeast Asia have launched flights to multiple locations in India.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,688.80, up by 25.35 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 5,693.70 and 5,665.10. There were 33 stocks advancing against 16 declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 5.64%, L&T up by 2.41%, HCL Tech up by 2.34%, Maruti up by 1.90% and M&M up by 1.74%. While, BHEL down by 1.52%, Wipro down by 1.21%, Infosys down by 1.03%, SAIL down by 1.01% and Coal India down by 0.84% were top losers on the index.

All the Asian indices were trading in green, Shanghai Composite was up by 2.77%, Kospi Composite Index was up by 0.42%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.18%, Hang Seng was up by 1.40%, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.48%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.90%, Straits Times was up by 0.58% and KLSE Composite was up 0.55%.