Benchmarks continue to trade in green; IT, TECK surge

Indian equities continued firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters and taking cues from European counterparts. Relentless buying in blue chip stocks after foreign institutional investors turned net buyers of Rs 744 crore in Indian shares on Thursday, bringing their monthly total so far to around $2.5 billion mainly led to up-move of local equity market. Traders were seen piling positions in IT, TECK and FMCG stocks while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas, Power and Auto sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Reliance Power was trading in green on reports that the CBI is likely to close its preliminary enquiry to probe coal block allocation in Reliance Power’s Sasan project. Seed companies Monsanto India, Bayer CorpSciences and Kaveri Seed were trading firm as the government may soon approve genetically modified (GM) food crops in India. Maruti Suzuki India was trading under pressure after domestic brokerage house downgraded the company to sell from reduce, saying the outlook for the company will be more challenging than currently priced by the stock.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets were too trading on optimistic note.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,300 and 21,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1291:1044 while 134 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21194.13, up by 119.54 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 21,235.14 and 21,113.25. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.24%, while Small cap index up by 0.36%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.53%, TECK up by 1.27%, FMCG up by 0.79% Realty up by 0.69% and Health Care up by 0.59% while, Oil & Gas down by 0.26%, Power down 0.06% and Auto down 0.01% were the only losers on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.60%, Infosys up by 1.44%, Wipro up by 1.28%, SBI up 1.27% and Cipla up by 1.25%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.29%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.26%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.76%, RIL down by 0.47% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.45%.

Meanwhile, in order to speed up clearances of infrastructure projects at the state level, the environment ministry has eased the environmental clearance process for industry particularly at the state level. The move is likely to expedite the implementation of various infrastructure projects relating to mining of minor minerals, river sand mining, thermal power plants with less than 5MW capacity. As per the new guidelines, public hearings or environmental impact assessment would not be required for projects relating to brick earth and ordinary earth mining with lease areas between 5 and 25 hectares or for thermal power plants using coal, lignite, naphtha and gas, with generating capacity of 5 MW or less.

The environment ministry has also re-categorised projects like mineral beneficiation plants, small thermal power plants, cement plants, metallurgical industries, leather and hide processing industries. Presently, infrastructure projects that require clearances at the state level are referred to as 'category B' projects with two sub-categories such as B1 and B2. Sub-category B1 includes projects that require an environmental impact assessment and public consultation before clearance by the state authority or its counterpart in the Union Territories. On the other hand, Sub-category B2 projects would be assessed for clearance on the basis of an application and a pre-feasibility report.

The infrastructure development is the most critical prerequisite for sustaining the present growth momentum of the economy. Meanwhile in order to expedite the implementation of infra projects, the government has been taking various measures. Recently, it has set up Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) to accord fast track clearances to large projects. Untill now, the CCI had cleared 209 projects worth Rs 3.84 lakh crore. Meanwhile, for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,316.15, up by 37.25 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 6,324.90 and 6,289.40. There were 30 stocks advancing against 19 declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 2.66%, NMDC up by 2.31%, Kotak Bank up by 2.07%, Cipla up by 1.80% and DLF up by 1.32%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.37%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.36%, JP Associates down by 0.91%, Asian Paints down by 0.81% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.75% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng up by 0.27%, KLSE Composite up by 0.87%, Straits Times up by 0.57%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.44%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.03%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.58%, Seoul Composite up by 0.15% and Shanghai Composite up by 1.36%.  

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.62%, Germany’s DAX added 0.72% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.48%.