Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals on Friday

Extending their run for third straight day, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading in fine fettle as sentiments remained positive owing to positive global cues and rising rupee. Rally in Stocks related to exports and imports too supported the sentiments with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxing some of the restrictions related to hedging of currency risk of probable exposures of exporters and importers. This will give them greater operational flexibility.

Global cues too remained up-beat with most of the Asian equity indices trading higher tracking positive data from the US. The world's largest economy grew at 2.6%, faster than estimated earlier in the fourth quarter, as per data released recently. The US markets ended modestly lower in last session on getting mixed economic data.

Back home, on the sectoral front, realty, software and oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while fast moving consumer goods and consumer durables remained the only losers 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 1073 shares on the gaining side against 536 shares on the losing side while 79 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 22,273.44; about 59 points higher compared to its previous closing of 22,214.37, and touched a high and a low of 22,363.97 and 22,224.36 respectively. The index is currently trading at 22,268.80, up by 54.43 points or 0.25%. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 63.57% stocks advancing against 31.75% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.86% and Small cap gained 0.50%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.20%, IT up by 1.16%, PSU up by 1.15%, Oil & Gas up by 1.14% and Teck up by 1.04%, while FMCG down by 0.56%, Capital Goods down by 0.19% and Consumer Durables down by 0.10% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.40%, Hindalco up by 2.39%, SSLT up by 1.94%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.74% and RIL up by 1.51%. On the flip side, HDFC was down by 2.17%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.01%, ITC was down by 1.00%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.64% and L&T was down by 0.57% 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 opened at 6,673.05; about 31 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 6,641.75, and has touched a high and a low of 6,684.95 and 6,650.25 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,667.65, up by 25.90 points or 0.39%. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were PNB up by 3.29%, IDFC up by 3.01%, SBI up by 2.59%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.58% and Hindalco up by 2.43%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.01%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.25%, ITC down by 0.99%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.68% and HDFC Bank down by 0.64% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 5.92 points or 0.29% to 2,052.51, Hang Seng increased by 279.10 points or 1.28% to 22,113.55, Jakarta Composite soared 41.71 points or 0.88% to 4,764.76, Nikkei 225 surged by 0.91 points or 0.01% to 14,623.80, Straits Times added by 17.22 points or 0.54% to 3,179.68 and KOSPI Composite was up by 0.44 points or 0.02% to 1,978.41.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite declined 4.82 points or 0.26% to 1,842.05 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 9.79 points or 0.11% to 8,769.78.