Heavy buying in Energy, Oil & Gas stocks drives rally in Indian markets

A heavy buying at Energy and Oil & Gas counters drove rally in Indian equity markets with both Sensex and Nifty remaining under a grip of bulls, tracking firm cues from the global markets as investors cheered signs of cooling inflation in the U.S. Sentiments remained optimistic, as lauding the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal said that it has played a pivotal role in empowering the entrepreneurs to be self-reliant and be a part of the country's growth story and also emphasized that the PMJDY has propelled the country from being part of a ‘fragile five’ to be the fifth largest economy in the world. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even after Singapore's industrial production decreased unexpectedly at the end of the final quarter, largely due to a slump in biomedical manufacturing output. The data from the Economic Development Board revealed that industrial production dropped 2.5 percent year-on-year in December after remaining flat in the previous month. 

Back home, real estate stocks were in watch, amid a private report stating that the inflow of funds in Indian real estate from foreign investors fell 30 per cent to $2.73 billion last year, but the influx jumped more than two times from domestic players to $1.51 billion.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 71671.93, up by 971.26 points or 1.37% after trading in a range of 70880.54 and 71731.10. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 1.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.96%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 3.69%, Oil & Gas up by 3.68%, Utilities up by 3.31%, PSU up by 2.82% and Power up by 2.60%, while IT down by 0.13% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 4.11%, Power Grid up by 3.40%, Tata Motors up by 3.03%, Sun Pharma up by 2.81% and Larsen & Toubro up by 2.80%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.76%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.50%, JSW Steel down by 0.48%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.46% and TCS down by 0.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its report has said that as many as 431 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or more, were hit by cost overrun of more than Rs 4.82 lakh crore in December 2023. Out of 1,820 projects, 431 reported cost overrun and 848 projects were delayed.

According to the report, total original cost of implementation of the 1,820 projects was Rs 25,87,066.08 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 30,69,595.88 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,82,529.80 crore (18.65 per cent of original cost). The expenditure incurred on these projects till December 2023 is Rs 16,26,813.80 crore, which is 53 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects. However, it stated that the number of delayed projects decreased to 638, if delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion.

Further, it said that for 298 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported. Out of the 848 delayed projects, 202 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, 200 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 323 projects for 25-60 months, and 123 projects have been delayed for more than 60 months. The average time overrun in these 848 delayed projects stood at 36.59 months.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21657.60, up by 305.00 points or 1.43% after trading in a range of 21429.60 and 21674.20. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 7.54%, Adani Enterprises up by 4.85%, Reliance Industries up by 4.27%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 3.69% and Coal India up by 3.61%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.79%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.03%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.89%, Infosys down by 0.64% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.53% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 119.58 points or 0.75% to 16,071.81, Taiwan Weighted added 124.6 points or 0.69% to 18,119.63, Jakarta Composite gained 3.32 points or 0.05% to 7,140.41, KOSPI increased 22.09 points or 0.88% to 2,500.65 and Nikkei 225 surged 275.87 points or 0.77% to 36,026.94, while Straits Times fell 14.49 points or 0.46% to 3,145.04 and Shanghai Composite weakened 21.95 points or 0.75% to 2,888.27.