Benchmarks add gains; Nifty sustains above 6300 mark

Indian equities added gains to continue firm trade in the late afternoon session on account of buying in frontline counters taking cues from global counterparts. Traders were seen piling positions in Auto, Bankex and Consumer Durables stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK and Power sector stocks. Select retail stocks such as Shoppers Stop, Future Retail and Provogue (India) were trading in green after commerce minister highlighted that he would seek legal opinion on whether a state can opt out of FDI multi-brand retail policy. In scrip specific development, Sasken Communication Technologies was trading firm touching their highest since October 2010 after the company announced a special dividend of Rs 22.50 per share. This would be in addition to a special dividend of Rs 2.50 rupees per share declared in October 2013. Hindustan Zinc was trading in green on reports that the government had approved a stake-sale in the company. The government holds a 29.5 percent stake in the company that is controlled by London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc.

On the global front, the Asian markets barring Taiwan Weighted 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 21,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1275:1186 while 155 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21237.34, up by 32.29 points or 0.15%, after trading in a range of 21,302.52 and 21189.20. There were 15 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.39%, while Small cap index up by 0.36%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.24%, Bankex up by 1.07%, Consumer Durables up by 0.91%, Metal up by 0.83% and Capital Goods up by 0.53%. On then other hand, IT down by 0.54%, TECK down by 0.53%, Power down by 0.50%, Oil and Gas down by 0.49% and PSU down by 0.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.  

The top gainers on the Sensex were SSLT up by 2.90%, Tata Motors up by 2.67%, ICICI Bank up by 2.27%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.68% and Tata Steel up by 1.48%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.11%, Coal India down by 1.76%, BHEL down by 1.53%, Sun Pharma down by 1.53% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.43%.

Meanwhile, in order to check possibility of speculation in the domestic capital markets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has put in place a stronger monitoring mechanism to restrain the exposure of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to Interest Rate Futures (IRF) within limits.

The marker regulator also asked the market participants to keep information on daily basis about aggregate gross long positions of FIIs in IRFs, which is a contract between a buyer and a seller agreeing to the future delivery of any interest-bearing asset such as government bonds. Referring to foreign investors’ adherence to prescribed regulatory limits, the SEBI has noted that exposure of overseas entities along with their investments in government securities should be taken into account for monitoring their adherence to prescribed regulatory limits. Presently, FIIs are allowed to investment a maximum of $25 billion in government securities.

Further, the SEBI in its circular stated that stock exchanges of the country should provide information regarding aggregate gross long position in IRF of all FIIs taken together at end of the day to the depositories including NSDL and CDSL and shall also publish the same on their website. Meanwhile, the depositories are also now required to aggregate the gross long position of FIIs in IRF in each stock exchange. As per the SEBI, in case the total of cash and IRF of all FIIs reaches 85 per cent of the permissible limit, the depositories would have to inform Reserve Bank of India (RBI), SEBI and stock exchanges. Once FIIs utilise the maximum exposure limit of 90 per cent of limit, they are not allowed to further increase their long position in IRF. Furthermore, SEBI noted that FIIs violating these norms would attract stringent action.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading were trading at 6,311.00 up by 7.05 points or 0.11%, after trading in a range of 6,330.30 and 6,297.90. There were 25 stocks advancing against 23 declining ones while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.88%, SSLT up 2.68%, ICICI Bank up by 2.16%, Ranbaxy up 2.14% and JP Associates up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Kotak Bank down by 2.88%, Asian Paints down by 2.69%, BPCL down by 2.41%, TCS down by 2.02% and BHEL down by 1.96% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were mostly trading in green; Seoul Composite up by 0.52%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.55%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.86%, KLSE Composite up by 0.47%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.99%, Straits Times up by 0.17% and Hang Seng up by 0.45%. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.25% was the sole loser.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.20%, Germany’s DAX added 0.18% and UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.11%.