Benchmarks trade jubilantly on firm global cues

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading jubilantly with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 5,900 (Nifty) and 20,000 (Sensex) bastions. The US markets made a green closing in last session despite volatility on mixed economic news. Though the concern related to Fed’s meeting kept looming, firm cues from Asian equity markets supported the sentiments with most of the regional counters trading sharply higher as Lawrence Summers withdrew from consideration to be the next Federal Reserve chairman, paving the way for Janet Yellen, who is said to be in favour of a slower reduction in US stimulus.

Back home, sentiments got bolstered after Indian rupee strengthened by 90 paise in early deals to trade at four-week high of 62.58 against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased capital inflows and dollar selling by exporters. Meanwhile, traders eying the wholesale price index (WPI) inflation data of August scheduled to be released today after market hours, followed by US Federal Reserve meeting and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy review. WPI inflation is likely to shoot up to six-month high and will be the biggest challenge of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s first policy review.

Moreover, shares of state-owned oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and Indian Oil Corporation remained on buyers’ radar after increasing petrol prices by Rs 1.63 per litre on rising oil rates and falling rupee. On the sectoral front, banking witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by capital goods and power, while software and technology remained the only losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 899 shares on the gaining side against 325 shares on the losing side while 41 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19977.38; about 244 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19732.76, and has touched a high and a low of 20086.43 and 19956.51 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 20006.42, up by 273.66 points or 1.39%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 71.07% stocks advancing against 25.69% declines. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.70% and 0.69% respectively. 

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 3.41%, Capital Goods up by 1.93%, Power up by 1.82%, Auto up by 1.80% and Realty up by 1.72%, while IT down by 1.08% and Teck down by 0.60% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 4.70%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.98%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.57%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.53% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.49%. On the flip side, Wipro was down by 1.56%, TCS was down by 1.03%, Sesa Goa was down by 0.84%, Coal India was down by 0.75% and Infosys was down by 0.52% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to increase the overseas investment into the country, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has relaxed registration and disclosure norms for low-risk foreign investors. The market regulator SEBI also exempted the low-risk overseas entities from tedious paper work, which entail submission of various documents and disclosures to get registered and operate in Indian markets.

SEBI also classified eligible foreign investors under three broad segments as per their risk profile to make portfolio investments in the country. As per the SEBI new norms, investment by foreign investors into government and other sovereign securities will be considered in the lowest-risk - Category I. Well-regulated entities like investment trusts, mutual funds, insurers, banks, university funds and pension funds have been put in the medium-risk - Category II, while corporate bodies, individuals and family offices have been classified in the high-risk - Category III.

Accordingly, the know your client (KYC) requirements- which entails submission of various documents and disclosures to get registered and operate in Indian markets - would be eased for those with low-risk profile Category-I investors. Besides, low risk entities would be exempted from submission of the list, identity proof, address proof and photographs for their ultimate beneficial owners. The SEBI new norms are expected to make it much easier for the foreign investors to enter the country and make investment decisions.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,930.30; about 79 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,850.60, and has touched a high and a low of 5,957.25 and 5,914.90 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,931.10, up by 80.50 points or 1.38 %. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IndusInd Bank up by 4.57%, ICICI Bank up by 4.55%, Axis Bank up by 4.29%, Power Grid up by 3.81% and Maruti Suzuki up by 3.85%. On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 23.72%, HCL Tech down by 3.17%, TCS down by 1.14%, Sesa Goa down by 0.90% and Coal India down by 0.73% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng surged 266.75 points or 1.16% to 23,182.03, Jakarta Composite soared 75.23 points or 1.72% to 4,450.76, Straits Times strengthened 50.14 points or 1.61% to 3,170.44, Seoul Composite jumped 12.12 points or 0.61% to 2,006.44 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 101.07 points or 1.24% to 8,243.55.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 5.36 points or 0.24% to 2,230.86.

The Japanese and Malaysian markets remained closed for the trade today.