Markets trade jubilantly in early deals on firm global cues

Extending their previous session jubilation, Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading jubilantly in early deals with frontline gauges surpassing their crucial 22,600 (Sensex) and 7,300 (Nifty) levels on the back of buoyant global cues. The US markets extended their gains for yet another day and the Nasdaq managed to reach its best closing level in a month, after the release of a report from the National Association of Realtors showing that existing home sales rose for the first time this year in April. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time and Japanese market was riding high, as yen declined near a one-week low. Back home, markets continue to maintain the steady trend on hopes that a Modi-led disposition would mark a paradigm shift in governance and herald a new era in economic reforms. Meanwhile, industry body Assocham in its action plan for the new government has pitched for liberalisation of ECB norms, GST implementation, incentives for investments and easing of processes for companies planning to set up manufacturing units. Select gold related stocks were continued their bull run for second day in a row after RBI permitted exporters, long-term export advance up to a maximum period of 10 years on a satisfactory track record and eased gold import norms. On the sectoral front, realty, capital goods and power witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while consumer durables 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 1636 shares on the gaining side against 371 shares on the losing side while 51 shares remain unchanged. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24611.40, up by 237.00 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 24692.09 and 24470.78. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.25% and Small cap index gained 1.84%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 3.15%, Capital Goods up by 2.31%, Power up by 1.91%, Auto up by 1.28% and TECK up by 1.16%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.42% was  the top loser. The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 5.57%, NTPC up by 3.35%, SSLT up by 3.32%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.57% and L&T up by 2.32%. On the flip side, Hindalco Inds was down by  0.90%, HDFC Bank was down by 0.26% and Bajaj Auto was down by 0.26%  were the losers on the Sensex. Meanwhile, In order to enhance Indian exports, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has eased norms for loans to exporters. The RBI, in its notification, stated that the domestic exporters can now get long-term loans from banks for up to 10 years to service export contracts. Earlier the exporters were allowed to get loans up to one year. Further, the central bank notified that banks can make such payments to exporters with a satisfactory track record of three years and adjust these payments against future exports. However, banks cannot charge interest rates exceeding 200 basis points above LIBOR. Furthermore, exporters who receive loans of $100 million or above need to report the transaction immediately to the central bank, the notification added. During the financial year 2014, Indian exports shipments touched $312.35 billion, registering 3.98% growth over the previous fiscal year but remained below the set export target at $325 billion. India’s export has been hovering near $300 billion over the last three fiscal years and it has become imperative to boost country’s exports and enhance its contribution in the world trade. In India, Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) governs all exports and imports related activities and mainly aims at enhancing the country's exports. The five-year FTP (2009-14) ended on March 31 and the new government formed after the general elections will introduce new FTP for the period 2014-19 in June 2014. Meanwhile, new FTP is likely to promote exports of specific products in specific geographies and would also abolish conventional method of exports by focusing more on areas like branding of products in the global markets, exports of services and hi-tech products and new strategy for marketing. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,345.45 up by 69.05 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 7,363.45 and 7,293.90. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 declines on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 4.44%, DLF up by 4.03%, SSLT up by 3.49%, IDFC up by 3.38% and NTPC up by 3.02%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.52%, Hindalco down by 0.84%, ACC down by 0.75%, Grasim down by 0.50% and Bajaj-Auto down by 0.28% were the top losers on the index. Asian markets were traded in mixed; Jakarta Composite increased 4.47 points or 0.09% to 4,974.35, Nikkei 225 surged by 152.34 points or 1.06% to 14,490.13, Straits Times rose by 7.18 points or 0.22% to 3,272.84 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 24.52 points or 0.27% to 8,994.15. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 0.67 points or 0.03% to 2,020.62, Hang Seng tumbled by 15.85 points or 0.07% to 22,937.91, KLSE Composite decreased 1.90 points or 0.10% to 1,873.22 and Seoul Composite was down by 0.64 points or 0.03% to 2,014.95.