Healthy macro data buoys markets; Sensex gains 240 points

A slew of positive macro economic data coupled with factoring-in of Greece loan default, led the Indian equity markets to make healthy gains during the mid-afternoon session on Wednesday.

A barometer of the Indian equity markets - the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) - gained by 240 points during the mid-afternoon trade session.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made healthy gains. It edged up 83 points or 1.00 percent at 8,451.70 points.

The 30-scrip S&P BSE Sensex, which opened at 27,823.65 points, was trading at 28,021.19 points (at 1.30 p.m.), up 240.36 points or 0.87 percent from its previous day's close at 27,780.83 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,032.73 points and a low of 27,799.91 points so far in the trade.

Analysts point out that Wednesday's intra-day gains came on the back of healthy macro economic data like the growth in eight core industries and the increase in government's expenditure that was revealed from the fiscal deficit numbers.

"There were couple of macro data which presented good growth prospects. Like the fiscal deficit data that showed that government expenditure and capex has taken off, the eight core industry data also showed growth," said Anand James, co-technical head for research with Geojit BNP Paribas.

On Tuesday, official data showed that India's fiscal deficit in the first two months (April-May) of the current financial year touched Rs.208,624 crore, or 37.5 percent of the target 2015-16.

Another set of data showed that a major index for select factory output jumped by 4.4 percent in May from a decline of 0.4 percent in the month before due to healthy rise in coal, electricity and refining production.

The eight core industries which comprise 38 percent of the total weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) stood at 178.6 from 162.4 in April.

On Tuesday, the Sensex closed 136 points or 0.50 percent up, outperforming despite anxiety about Greece's default of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan repayment.

"Good news about a normal monsoon in July and the hope that the Greece crisis would be resolved soon, as both creditors and the Greek government now seem to make concessions, buoyed the markets," James added.

During Wednesday's intra-day trade so far, all the 12 sector-based indices of the BSE were trading in the positive territory.

Healthy buying took place in capital goods, bank, automobile, healthcare, information technology (IT), metal, oil and gas and consumer durables sectors.

The S&P BSE capital goods index augmented by 274.92 points, bank index jumped 225.78 points, automobile index zoomed by 216.59 points, healthcare index gained 198.81 points, IT index edged higher by 141.15 points, metal index rose by 128.79 points.

The S&P BSE oil and gas index increased by 112.05 points and consumer durables index was up by 77.99 points.