Benchmarks cheer BJP victory; Nifty above 6350 mark

Benchmarks hit new lifetime high after the Bharatiya Janata Party swept the recently held state polls by securing an absolute majority in three out of four states and emerging as the biggest winner in Delhi. The BJP is perceived by many investors as being more business-friendly, and its good showing on state elections are raising optimism about its chances ahead of general elections due by May next year. Sentiments remained boosted as the rupee appreciated by 51 paise to trade at nearly four-month high of 60.90 against the dollar due to dollar sales by banks and exporters and sustained foreign capital inflows.  Moreover, some support also came in as the data showed that the foreign funds remained buyers of Indian stocks on December 6, 2013. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 863.77 crore on Friday, December 6, 2013, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

On the global front, most of the Asian equity markets are trading in the green, led by Japanese Nikkei, up by around two percent as an upbeat U.S. jobs report hurting the yen and triggering some hectic buying at several counters. Back home, traders were buying, Bankex, Capital Goods and Realty. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1125:670. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 21,000 and 6,350 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21307.47 up by 310.94 points or 1.48% after trading in a range of 21483.74 and 21303.65. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.687% and Small cap index gained 0.45%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 3.26%, Capital Goods up by 2.57%, Realty up by 1.12%, Power up by 1.18% and Oil & Gas up by 1.49%, while there were no losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 4.84%, L&T up by 3.60%, HDFC Bank up by 3.18%, ONGC up by 2.80%, and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.80%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 1.04%, Tata Steel was down by 0.26% and Cipla was down by 0.10% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, In order to harmonize delisting norms with other regulations, including the new Companies Act, 2013 and takeover and buyback norms, capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is likely to revise its delisting regulations soon to make it easier for publicly listed companies looking to go private, while safeguarding the interest of minority shareholders. SEBI had put in place present delisting regulations in 2009, which facilitate listed company to remove its securities from a stock exchange with promoters buying out shares held by minority shareholders.  

Presently, an internal committee of the SEBI is working on the possible changes that are required in the delisting norms. It is also organizing meetings with industry bodies and various companies to make delisting norms easier and cost-effective for them. Furthermore, SEBI has noted that comments can be sought from the general public and other stakeholders depending on the panel's recommendations.

The changes in SEBI's delisting norms are being considered to remove major issues for companies related to offer price at which promoters are required to buy out the shares of public shareholders. The market regulator will also make the processes cost-effective and easier for cases when promoters are forced to delist their companies on account of factors like long-running trading suspension, persistent losses, and major violations to regulations. The companies are also required to get delisted in the event of their public shareholding falling below minimum threshold limits at 10 percent for public sector companies and 25 percent for private sector companies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,356.90 up by 97.00 points or 1.55% after trading in a range of 6,415.25 and 6,353.35. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stock declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 4.89%, L&T up by 3.66%, PNB up by 3.37%, HDFC Bank up by 3.19%, and ONGC up by 3.03%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 4.36%, NMDC down by 0.63%, Cairn down by 0.38%, Lupin down by 0.33% and Tata Steel down by 0.31% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng rose 67.62 points or 0.28% to 23,810.72, Jakarta Composite surged 26.03 points or 0.62% to 4,206.81, KLSE Composite increased by 11.28 points or 0.62% to 1,838.23, Nikkei 225 soared 281.97 points or 1.84% to 15,581.83, Straits Times added 1.80 points or 0.06% to 3,115.97, Seoul Composite gained 20.56 points or 1.04% to 2,000.97 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 80.31 points or 0.96% to 8,448.03. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 1.91 points or 0.09% to 2,235.20.