Markets trade near all time high led by banking stocks

Indian markets are not looking in a mood to give up any gains and till noon trade there is no sign of any volatility despite the F&O series expiry, continued FII interest is helping the market outperform the global peers. The benchmarks after a cautious start have continuously been strengthening, trading near their intraday and fresh all time highs. Recovery in some of the Asian equity markets after their initial fall too has supported the sentiments. Traders were getting some sentiment boost with rating agency Moody’s report that fall in high current account deficit (CAD) limits India's vulnerability to global financial market volatility. Banking sector was in most jubilant mood and most of the banking majors, especially the state-run banks, including top lender State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, rose on global investment major Goldman Sachs upgrade of stocks, saying that macro recovery and potential for post-election reforms could lead to a gradual reduction in stressed loans. It is expecting a rally in the high-beta PSU banks on emerging macroeconomic and political clarity. The aviation stocks too were showing some upmove after the RBI extended the deadline for raising working capital via external commercial borrowings by domestic airlines to March 2015 from December 2013.Jet Airways was up by over 5%, while Spicejet gained around 4%.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22214.61, up by 119.31 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 22222.17 and 22094.29. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 declining ones on the index.

The broader indices continue to outperform the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.54%, while the Small cap index gained 0.89%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on BSE were, Bankex up by 1.30%, Auto up by 1.22%, Power up by 1.16%, Realty up by 0.98%, Consumer Durables up by 0.94% and Capital Goods was up by 0.90%. On the other hand, Healthcare down by 0.67%, IT down by 0.47% and TECK down by 0.13%, were the losers on the sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 4.43%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.03%, Hero Moto Corp up by 2.36%, Axis Bank up by 2% and HUL up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Dr Reddy’s down by 1.75%, Sun Pharma down by 1.08%, TCS down by 0.93%, Wipro down by 0.76% and SSLT down by 0.44 were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to bring transparency in tainted coal sector of the country, the government has set up coal regulator. The coal regulator will advise the government on principles and methodologies for coal price determination, whereas state-owned Coal India (CIL) will continue to fix prices, subject to the coal ministry’s approval.

The function of the coal regulator includes formulation of principles and methodologies for determination of price of raw coal, washed coal or any other byproduct of washing. Apart from that, the regulator will suggest the government on allocation of reserves, procedures for sampling and standards of performance without venturing in matters relating to mines safety and environmental issues. Further, the coal regulator will give advice regarding development of mining technologies, promoting competition, efficiency and economy in the activities of the coal industry, promotion of investment, beneficiation methods and conservation of coal resources. The regulator will comprise of a chairperson and four members, which will be selected on the recommendations of a six-member committee, headed by the Cabinet secretary.

The need to set up a coal regulator emerged when the lack of transparency in grant of reserves led to a controversy over the alleged favourable allocations causing a notional loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the government. Coal regulator will ensure greater transparency in auctioning the fully explored coal blocks and will also enable the government to allot coal mining licences through competitive bidding. Further, domestic coal production is also expected to increase after the formation of coal regulator. At present, Indian domestic coal demand is around 35 percent higher than domestic supply, resulting into a high deficit of which a huge part is being met by costly imports from overseas countries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,643.30, up by 41.90 points or 0.63%, after trading in a range of 6,646.20 and 6,599.50. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 declines, while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 5.99%, SBI up by 4.33%, PNB up by 3.38%, BOB up by 3.17% and Bharti Airtel up by 3.01%. On the flip side, Dr Reddy down by 1.66%, Sun Pharma down by 1.17%, Lupin down by 1.04%, Wipro down by 0.83% and Grasim down by 0.83% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices barring the mainland Chinese indices were trading in green; Jakarta Composite was up by 0.48%, KLSE Composite up by 0.02%, Nikkei 225 surged by 1.01%, Straits Times was higher by 0.52%, Seoul Composite gained 0.70% and Taiwan Weighted was higher by 0.48%.

On the other hand Shanghai Composite was down by 0.17% and Hang Seng was lower by 0.18%.