Benchmarks extend gains in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended gains and reached their intra-day high level in afternoon session on the back of buying witnessed in pharmaceutical and infrastructure companies. The investors’ sentiments remained optimistic over the pro- reforms approach adopted by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, which has sent a strong signal that the RBI would take significant steps to re-invigorate growth in the economy by cutting interest rates. Further, the gain in rupee value against the dollar also added to the optimistic sentiments. The investors’ sentiments  got support from gross direct tax collection which rose by 14.43% to Rs 1.88 lakh crore during the April-August period of 2013-14 fiscal as against Rs 1.64 lakh crore in the same period last year. Buying was also witnessed in finance, service and finance stocks. On stock specific movement, ICICI Bank, Cipla and Wipro were trading over 2 percent higher, while, Coal India, M&M and Tata Motors were trading over 2 percent lower on BSE. The market breadth remained positive. Out of 1,927 stocks traded, 1118 stocks advanced while 694 stocks declined on the BSE. On global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as global investors were awaiting for the monthly American jobs report.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,148.23 up by 168.47 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 19,169.17 and 18,929.38. There were only 21 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.47%, while Small cap index also up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.62%, Bankex up by 1.56%, Healthcare up by 1.54% and Teck up by 0.96%. While, Auto down by 0.56% and oil and Gas down by 0.16% on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were, ICICI Bank up by 5.17%, Cipla up by 3.43%, Wipro up by 2.40%, L&T up by 2.33% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.85%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.88%, Mahindra and Mahindra down by 2.26%, Tata Power down by 2.20%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.82% and Hero Moto Corp down by 1.68% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to pick up Indian economic growth, Industry body Assocham has suggested the various measures to the government including raising investment in agriculture and cutting back on subsidies among others.

Assocham President Rana Kapoor said that the government must raise investment in agriculture from below 3 percent at present to over 5 percent by the end of the ongoing Five-year Plan (2012-17) and also recommended to adopt an 'expenditure switching' policy, to achieve the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent in the current fiscal by cutting back on subsidies and boosting plan capital expenditure. The government must issue dollar-denominated NRI bonds as a short-term measure to build forex reserves. By adding further, Assocham president said that the government should execute divestment agenda according to plan and also lay out a credible time-bound roadmap for roll-out of the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Direct Taxes Code (DTC).

Further, in order to boost the country’s export, government should lower cost of export credit, Kapoor added. Assocham expects that the Indian economy growth will revive in the second half of FY 2014. Meanwhile, the country’s growth slowed down to four year low at 4.4 percent in the April to June quarter of this fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,635.60 up by 42.65 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 5,637.55 and 5,566.15. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 5.14%, Cipla up by 3.70%, Power Grid up by 3.38%, IDFC up by 3.11% and Asian Paints up by 3.04%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.88%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.76%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.66%, M&M down by 2.60 and Hero Moto Corp down by 2.23% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Seoul Composite up by 0.19%, Straits Times up by 0.19%, Hang Seng up by 0.16%, KLSE Composite up by 0.21% and Shanghai Composite up by 0.65%. While, Nikkei 225 was down by 1.45%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.41% and Taiwan Weighted down by 0.06%.