Benchmarks make gap-up opening on firm global cues

Buoyed by firm global cues, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading near their all time high levels. Sentiments remained up-beat as investors breathed easy with easing Ukraine concerns over the situation in Crimea even as the region voted in favor of quitting Ukraine. The US markets made a good bounce back on Friday on bargain hunting and on a positive report showing a stronger than expected rebound in industrial production in the month of February. The Asian markets too were trading mostly in the green terrain tailing the gains in the US markets and some of the indices are up by about a percent rebounding from a five-week low.

Back home, broad based buying was witnessed in the markets as apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too equally participated in the rally. Sentiments also remained jubilant on report that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 982.19 crore on Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Some support also came in after investors started piling up positions in pharma sector stocks, on report that the foreign direct investments in the sector has more than doubled to $1.26 billion during the April-December period of 2013-14 fiscal amid concerns over increasing acquisitions of domestic firms by multinationals. Shares of banking space too remained on buyers’ radar after the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation moderated for the third straight month and is likely to increase the clamour for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut interest rates in its next monetary policy.

Meanwhile, all the sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in the green with banking, auto, oil and gas segments gaining the most. Metal, power, realty, fast-moving consumer goods and consumer durables too were trading with significant gains. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,121 shares on the gaining side against 494 shares on the losing side while 80 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 21849.65; about 39 points higher compared to its previous closing of 21809.80, and touched a high and a low of 22040.72 and 21849.65 respectively. The index is currently trading at 21999.22, up by 189.42 points or 0.87%. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 66.14% stocks advancing against 29.14% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.95% and Small cap gained 1.03%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.64%, Bankex up by 1.63%, Oil & Gas up by 1.49%, PSU up by 1.47% and Metal up by 1.28%, while there were no losers on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 7.18%, BHEL up by 2.48%, SBI up by 2.21%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.15% and Coal India up by 1.95%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 0.83%, HDFC was down by 0.34%, L&T was down by 0.21%, Hindalco was down by 0.13% and TCS was down by 0.09% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to meet expenses for its regulatory and investor-centric activities, Market regulator SEBI will soon consider a significant revision in the fees it charges from various entities. However, a final decision on the proposed revision, which includes pushing back the fees to the level seen before a reduction took place in 2009 for some intermediaries, would be taken by SEBI's board at a meeting scheduled for later this month.

The proposal to revise the fee structure is based on recommendations made by a Committee on Rationalization of Financial Resources (CRFR), which has submitted its report to market watchdog after detailed discussions and a 'thorough study' of various parameters. Further, it comes against the backdrop of lower volumes in primary as well as secondary markets, resulting in reduced fee collections.

As per the recommendations, the application fee for mutual funds can be hiked to Rs 5 lakh from the existing Rs 1 lakh, while registration fee is expected to remain steady at the current level of Rs 25 lakh. Besides, the panel has recommended that regulatory fee for stock exchanges having turnover in excess of Rs 10 lakh crore at Rs 1 crore plus 0.00006 per cent on turnover in excess of Rs 10 lakh crore. The overall regulatory fee would be capped at Rs 20 crore. For stock brokers, the proposal is to restore 2006 fee structure level -- charging a fee of Rs 20 per one crore of turnover.

As per SEBI’s estimates, the regulator's operational income (fees from intermediaries) is expected to be about Rs 165 crore in the current fiscal - ending March 31, 2014 and at about Rs 196 crore in the next financial year 2014-15. However, a revision in fee structure as per CRFR recommendations can boost SEBI's operational income to Rs 378 crore in 2014-15. Presently, SEBI is expected to post a deficit of Rs 66 crore on operational account in 2013-14, while the gap can further increase to about Rs 85 crore in next fiscal. However, a revision in fees can help SEBI post a surplus of about Rs 98 crore in the next fiscal 2014-15.

Further, total income for the year 2014-15 is estimated at Rs 372 crore, which would include Rs 196 crore as fees from intermediaries, Rs 158 crore as income from investments and about s 18 crore as miscellaneous income. However, after adoption of CRFR suggestions, the total estimated income can shore upto to Rs 554 crore, on account of an increase in fee income.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,532.45; about 28 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,504.20, and has touched a high and a low of 6,574.95 and 6,531.90 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,561.65, up by 57.45 points or 0.88%. There were 44 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 6.93%, IndusInd Bank up by 2.86%, BHEL up by 2.53%, PNB up by 2.43% and Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.41%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 0.95%, HDFC down by 0.34%, L&T down by 0.23%, TCS down by 0.18% and Hindalco down by 0.04% were the top losers on the index.

most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite strengthened by 5.99 points or 0.30% to 2,029.66, Hang Seng added 98.87 points or 0.46% to 21,572.82, KLSE Composite climbed 2.16 points or 0.12% to 1,817.32, Nikkei 225 spurted by 181.58 points or 1.27% to 14,459.25, Straits Times was marginally in green by 0.14 points or 0.00% to 3,092.28, KOSPI Composite soared 13.45 points or 0.70% to 1,940.98 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 37.87 points or 0.44% to 8,737.97.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 49.12 points or 1.01% to 4,827.06.