Firm trade prevails; Nifty above 6200 mark

Indian equities 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 upbeat mood after Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its December mid-quarter monetary policy Review, delivered the unexpected and maintained a status quo stance on its key policy rates as it left the policy repo rate and reverse repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 7.75% and 6.75% respectively. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas stocks. In scrip specific development, Trent was trading firm after the UK-based retail giant Tesco filed the first multi-brand retail application seeking to invest $110 million to open supermarkets in the country with the Tata group firm.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading on a mixed note, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,200 and 20,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1345:887 while 166 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20864.69, up by 252.55 points or 1.23% after trading in a range of 20917.57 and 20568.70. There were 29 stocks advancing against 1 decline on the index.

The broader indices too added more gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indexes were trading up by 1.16% and 0.90% respectively.

There was buying activity across the board and none of the sectoral indices were down in red. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 3.48%, Capital Goods up by 2.59%, Oil & Gas up by 2.06%, PSU up 1.67% and Power up by 1.67%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 4.89%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.97%, L&T up by 2.92%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.88% and SBI up by 2.87%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 1.57% was the sole loser on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to enhance competitiveness of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the National Board for MSMEs has discussed various aspects of MSME sector with special focus on the Public Procurement Policy. The board in its official statement appealed to all the members to mobilize MSME Associations and units to actively participate in the Procurement process at the government level to facilitate a demand pull growth in the segment.

The MSMEs board meeting chaired by Minister of State for MSME K H Muniyappa has also announced new developments in the MSME sector, which include creation of India Inclusive Innovation Fund, legal framework for factoring services and creation of 15 new technology centres.

Presently, every ministry except for defence is required to procure a minimum of 20% of annual value of goods and services from micro and small enterprises’. However many ministries are yet to come up with a procurement plan. The need to review Public Procurement Policy has emerged, as the share of MSMEs in the GDP, manufacturing output and exports has been slowly declining. Furthermore, owing to the nature of the structure of the MSMEs, they have far less ability to counter demands of time and resources as efficiently as their larger counterparts. The move is also aimed to counter the imports of electronic system and design management sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,220.05, up by 81.00 points or 1.32% after trading in a range of 6,236.00 and 6,129.95. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stock declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 5.23%, BHEL up by 4.92%, PNB up by 3.97%, IndusInd Bank up by 3.75% and Bajaj Auto up by 3.19%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 1.47% and NMDC down by 0.07% were the only losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Hang Seng rose 0.32%, Jakarta Composite added 0.21%, Nikkei 225 surged 2.02%, and Seoul Composite gained 0.45%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 0.13%, Straits Times slipped by 0.21%, Taiwan Weighted edged lower by 0.05% and KLSE Composite slid 0.22%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.35%, Germany’s DAX added 0.56% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.33%.