Firm trade prevails; Sensex surpasses 18,300 mark

Indian equity markets added gains to continue firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line counters and taking cues from European counterparts. The sentiments were on optimistic note from the early trades after the country’s apex bank in its latest attempt to curb rupee’s volatility opened a forex swap window. Investors however paid no heed towards Moody's Investors Service report, which stated that India’s plan to provide cheap grains to the poor is credit negative and will exacerbate the government’s weak finances. Traders were seen piling position in Metal, Oil & Gas and Capital Goods stocks. In scrip specific development, Tata Motors was trading in green after foreign brokerage firm Barclays upgraded the stock to overweight from underweight and raised its target price, citing improving performance at the Jaguar Land Rover. Market heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was trading in green after the company and its partner BP Plc won approval to invest $3.18 billion in R-Series gas field in the flagging KG-D6 block. The market may remain volatile as traders may roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the current month i.e. August 2013 series to next month i.e. September 2013 series. The near month August 2013 derivatives contract will expire today i.e. August 29, 2013.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in green barring Shanghai Composite while the European markets were too trading on optimistic note.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 5,350 and 18,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1170:885, while 122 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18339.93, up by 343.78 points or 1.91% after trading in a range of 18363.51 and 18071.22. There were only 25 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The broader indices continued to gain; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 1.17% and 0.60% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 2.33%, Oil & Gas up by 2.28%, Capital Goods up by 2.08%, FMCG up by 2.02% and Bankex up 1.73% while, there were no losing indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were, Sesa Goa up by 9.70%, HDFC up by 5.52%, Hindalco Industries up by 4.55%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.56% and Reliance Industries up by 3.18%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 1.53%, Infosys down by 0.34%, Cipla down by 0.13%, Sun Pharma down 0.08% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.05% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to determine the mandate for the use of excess coal from captive mines, the Coal Ministry is working on a policy for using the surplus coal that has been delayed for the past two years. Coal ministry is of the view that excess coal should be given to Coal India or its subsidiary at a notified price and has started a fresh round of discussions with ministries including Power and Steel in order to format policy for the use of excess coal from captive mines.

After that, it will take draft to the Cabinet for its consideration. As per the Coal Mines Act 1973, that oversees captive mining, all coal mined from the block must be used entirely for the respective end-use project. Earlier, when the policy was floated, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) expressed concerns and directed the nodal Ministry to put it on hold. The Law ministry also raised objections over diversion of excess coal from mines attached to Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP).

Meanwhile, several private firms had approached the government for using excess coal for other projects. Reliance Power had received the Government’s approval to use excess coal from attached mines in Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMMP) to another project. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,390.35, up by 105.35 points or 1.99% after trading in a range of 5,398.05 and 5,303.00. There were 40 stocks advancing against 9 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sesa Goa up by 9.78%, HDFC up by 5.88%, Lupin up by 4.94%, Hindalco Industries up by 4.85% and Kotak Bank up by 4.77%. On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 2.43%, Coal India down by 1.52%, PNB down by 1.38%, DLF down by 0.68% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.33% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Straits Times up by 1.04%, KLSE Composite up by 1.16%, Seoul Composite up by 1.22%, Hang Seng up by 0.84%, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.91%, Jakarta Composite up by 1.26% and Taiwan Weighted up by 1.19% while, Shanghai Composite down by 0.19% was the lone loser amongst Asian pack.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.35%, Germany’s DAX added 0.40% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.61%.