Financials lift Sensex 226 points higher; global stocks rally

Markets bounced back after yesterday’s losses and closed higher owing to a broad based rally among the frontliners amid strength in the global peers. Meanwhile, all eyes are set at the US FOMC meet which will commence today.

Provisionally, the Sensex gained 226 points to close at 25,932 and the Nifty surged 57 points to end at 7,886.

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(updated at 3:30 PM)

Markets continue to trade firm on the back of strong buying seen in banking and financial shares amid strong global cues. But traders are cautious ahead of the Fed FOMC meet, which commences later tonight.  

At 2:30 PM, the Sensex has gained 220 points to trade at 25,926 and the Nifty has climbed 55 points to trade at 7,883.

The top gainers on the Sensex are Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Hero Motocorp, HDFC and Axis Bank, all up between 1.5-2.5% each.


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(updated at 1PM)

Markets edged higher in noon trades on Wednesday, amid firm European cues, helped by a rebound in financials and renewed buying interest in index heavyweights.

Further, market participants are adopting a cautious stance ahead of the two-day US Federal Reserve meet which begins today.

At 1 PM, the Sensex has gained 296 points to trade at 26,003 and the Nifty has climbed 84 points to trade at 7,914.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.3% and the Small-cap index was trading flat. Market breadth was positive with 1281 gainers 1033 losers on the BSE.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities to the tune of Rs 911 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

MACRO-ECONOMIC DATA

India's exports fell sharply and trade deficit widened last month, as per the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. Merchandise exports fell 20.66% to $21.26 billion in August 2015 over August 2014.

Non-oil imports rose 7.01% to $26.38 billion whereas oil imports plunged 42.59% at $7.35 billion in August 2015 over August 2014. The trade deficit rose sharply to $12.47 billion in August 2015 from $10.66 billion in August 2014.

Meanwhile, as per the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's services exports rose 0.3% to $13.39 billion in July 2015 over July 2014, snapping decline for last four sequential months. However, India's services imports jumped 10% to $7.502 billion in July 2015. Thus, India's services trade surplus declined 9.8% to $5.884 billion in July 2015 from $6.522 billion in July 2014.

"Trend decline in exports ex-oil since Jan’15, indicates waning global demand conditions and can also be partly attributable to India losing competitive pressure. Overall, contractions in external trade and services are emblematic of decelerating global and domestic growth," points out Dhananjay Sinha, Head, Institutional Research, Emkay Global Financial Services in a report.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian markets ended higher on Wednesday with China's Shanghai Composite rebounding to end 4.7% higher while Hang Seng gained 2.6%. Japan's benchmark Nikkei ended up 0.8% while Straits Times was up 1.2%.

SECTORS & STOCKS

Most sectoral indices were trading higher led by Bankex up 1.4% while Capital Goods, Metal and Consumer Durables indices were trading lower.

In the financial space, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank weer up 1-2.5% each. Among the index heavyweights ITC, Reliance Industries and Infosys were up 0.5-1% each.

Sun Pharmaceutical was up 2.1% after it entered into an agreement with InSite Vision to acquire the US-based eyecare firm for around $48 million plus related debt and other transaction costs to strengthen its branded ophthalmic portfolio in the US.

Bharti Airtel has unveiled its high speed 4G services in Thiruvananthapuram. On the losing side, BHEL, NTPC, L&T, HUL and Hindalco slipped between 0.5-1%.

Among other shares, Shares of Cambridge Technology Enterprises (CTE) are locked in 5% upper circuit at Rs 77.60, also its 52-week high on the BSE, after the company announced its continued engagement with Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy and sustainability management with the goal of helping support their cloud application development, data modelling, and analytic reporting initiatives.