Benchmarks trade higher tracking firm global cues

Extending previous session’s rally, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading with traction in the early deals on Monday, with frontline gauges recapturing their crucial 6,300 (Nifty) and 21,150 (Sensex) bastion supported by firm global cues. The US markets moved modestly higher in last session on getting good GDP data, at its fastest pace in two years. Moreover, the Asian markets too were trading mostly in the green terrain at this point of time, taking cues from the US markets and, as the International Monetary Fund said that it’s raising its outlook for the world’s largest economy.

Back home, sentiments also remained up-beat on report that foreign funds remained buyers of Indian stocks on December 20 2013. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 990.19 crore on Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Some support also came in from report that indirect-tax collections grew by 5% in the April-November period of this fiscal, crossing Rs 3 lakh crore mark. Meanwhile, public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) viz,, BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher after they hiked petrol prices on Friday by 41 paise a litre following the government’s decision to raise commission paid to petrol pump dealers and firming global oil rates. Simultaneously, diesel rates were increased by 10 paise per litre due to a hike in dealers’ commission.

On the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by capital goods and consumer durables, 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 963 shares on the gaining side against 290 shares on the losing side while 51 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 21080.54; about 1 point higher compared to its previous closing of 21079.72, and touched a high and a low of 21207.89 and 21080.54 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 21177.61, up by 97.89 points or 0.46%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 75.79% stocks advancing against 20.48% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 1.04% and Small cap gained 1.00%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 2.06%, Metal up by 1.69%, Capital Goods up by 1.48%, Consumer Durables up by 1.27% and Oil & Gas up by 0.99%, while IT down by 0.30% and Teck down by 0.14% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco Industries up by 3.78%, BHEL up by 2.54%, Tata Steel up by 1.71%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.54% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Infosys was down by 0.88%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.62% and Tata Power was down by 0.33% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, In a move to enhance the capital inflows into the country, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed the overseas entities to use complex multi-fund structures such as multi-class share vehicle (MCV) or protected cell companies (PCCs) in order to invest in India. SEBI has noted that overseas entities can use complex multi-fund structures, if they want such models owing to the regulations in their home country and are ready to provide details of actual beneficiary of funds.

The market regulator has taken the initiative to relax the rules after representations made by the investors that necessary safeguards can be put in place against any abuse of such structures. SEBI in its circular highlighted that an FII seeking registration in India with MCV and PCCs structures would not be considered to have an 'opaque' structure if it is required by its regulator. This would be subject to certain conditions, including entities being regulated by their home jurisdiction, each fund/sub-fund of the entity satisfying broad based criteria and the entity should provide information regarding its beneficial owners as and when sought by SEBI.

Amid rising fears over the possible round-tripping or money laundering activities, SEBI, in 2010, had prohibited foreign entities using complex structures like PCCs and MTV. PCCs designed entities might comprise of various cells, having funds of various investors, in such a manner that there is legal segregation and protection of assets and liabilities for each cell.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,267.20; about 7 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 6,274.25, and has touched a high and a low of 6,310.25 and 6,266.95 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,305.65, up by 31.40 points or 0.50%. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Jindal Steel up by 3.71%, Hindalco up by 3.60%, DLF up by 2.61%, BHEL up by 2.41% and Tata Steel up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 0.86%, M&M down by 0.34%, Tata Power down by 0.22%, Lupin down by 0.10% and TCS down by 0.08% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 8.20 points or 0.39% to 2,092.99, Hang Seng increased 160.49 points or 0.70% to 22,972.67, Straits Times jumped 9.98 points or 0.32% to 3,104.46, Seoul Composite strengthened 13.57 points or 0.68% to 1,996.92 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 58.62 points or 0.70% to 8,467.15.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declined 33.74 points or 0.80% to 4,161.82 and KLSE Composite was down by 2.82 points or 0.15% to 1,835.21.