Domestic bourses trade higher on sanguine global cues

Extending their previous session’s up-move, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Friday with frontline gauges trading above their crucial 6,050 (Nifty) and 20,400 (Sensex) bastions, supported by sanguine global cues. The US markets made a good surge in last session and Dow marked its best session of the year, reacting positively to the latest batch of US economic data. Asian markets too were trading mostly higher at this point of time with the Japanese Nikkei taking the lead, up by around two percent after yen dropped against the dollar.

Back home, sentiments remained up-beat on the buzz that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) specifying a circuit limit of up to 20% for all publicly traded stocks that are included in any index derivatives. The market regulator said the move is aimed at protecting stocks against excessive volatility risks. Some support also came in from report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 10.75 crore on February 6, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

On the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gains in trade followed by healthcare and metal, while fast moving consumer goods remained the lone loser on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 985 shares on the gaining side against 411 shares on the losing side while 75 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 20441.04; about 130 points higher compared to its previous closing of 20310.74, and touched a high and a low of 20450.51 and 20385.63 respectively. The index is currently trading at 20434.36, up by 123.62 points or 0.61%. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 66.96% stocks advancing against 27.94% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.72% and Small cap gained 0.64%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.43%, Healthcare up by 1.37%, Metal up by 1.29%, Capital Goods up by 0.77% and Oil & Gas up by 0.76%, while FMCG down by 0.07% was the only loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.56%, SSLT up by 2.26%, Sun Pharma up by 2.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.67% and Axis Bank up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Coal India was down by 0.71%, ITC was down by 0.29%, Hindalco Industries was down by 0.28%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.18% and  HDFC Bank was down by 0.07% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision making body of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), approved the proposed amendments in the EPS-1995 scheme in order to provide a minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000. The move will benefit about EPFO’s 28 lakh pensioners. As per the EPFO, Labour Ministry will soon move proposal to Union Cabinet for approval.

The CBT meeting, chaired by the Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes, also decided to raise the monthly wage ceiling to Rs 15,000 from Rs 6,500 through amending EPF scheme, 1952. At present, workers in India are getting basic wages, including basic pay and DA, of up to Rs 6,500 covering under the ambit of EPFO. Furthermore, the board also decided to reduce administrative charges paid by the employers from 1.10 percent of the basic wage, including basic pay and dearness allowance to 0.85 percent. The burden would increase with the increase in wage ceiling. Besides this, the CBT also approved the proposed change in the methodology of computing the pensionable salary on the basis of average salary of the last 60 months instead of 12 months as provided in the EPS-95.

The EPFO is presently running social security programmes include Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme 1952, Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) 1995 and Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme 1976.The CNX Nifty opened at 6,077.65; about 41 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,036.30, and has touched a high and a low of 6,079.95 and 6,057.05 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,068.65, up by 32.35 points or 0.54%. There were 39 stocks advancing against 10 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up by 3.43%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.83%, Tata Steel up by 2.62%, SSLT up by 2.35% and Sun Pharma up by 2.21%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 0.86%, Ranbaxy down by 0.61%, ACC down by 0.48%, ITC down by 0.31% and Hindalco down by 0.24% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng rose 166.79 points or 0.78% to 21,589.92, Jakarta Composite increased 39.56 points or 0.89% to 4,464.27, KLSE Composite jumped 6.86 points or 0.38% to 1,804.76, Nikkei 225 surged 271.19 points or 1.92% to 14,426.31, Straits Times strengthened 24.84 points or 0.83% to 3,013.11, Seoul Composite added 10.24 points or 0.54% to 1,918.13 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 86.77 points or 1.04% to 8,397.78.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 4.74 points or 0.23% to 2,028.35.