Markets continue to trade marginally in green

Indian equity benchmarks were trading marginally in green in early noon session on the back of tepid global cues. Investors got some encouragement with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but there is still potential to grow at a much faster pace. Finance Minister has further said that the Centre and states need to work together to put the country on a high growth path even as states pitched for higher allocation to meet additional outgo towards pay revision of their employees. However, markets remained cautious as investors closely monitor the last batch of corporate earnings to be slated this week. Also, caution prevails ahead of the key macrodata including GDP, IIP and consumer inflation due to be unveiled later during the week. Meanwhile, banks are gaining across the board on improving credit demand after the government set a minimum import price for steel products to check dumping from countries such as China and South Korea. Traders were seen piling position in Realty, Bankex, Capital Goods, PSU and Power stocks, while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK and Oil & Gas sector stocks. 

In scrip specific development, shares of Jet Airways were trading higher after the company reported over seven fold jump in its net profit to Rs 467.11 crore for the quarter ended December 2015. The company earned net profit of Rs 63.11 crore in the corresponding quarter year ago. Marsons was trading higher after the company has bagged order worth Rs 25 crore from RRVPIML, a Rajasthan State Utility for supply of 19 nos. 25 MVA 132/33 Kv class Power Transformers. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24631.51, up by 14.54 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 24530.43 and 24691.89. There were 19 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.92%, while Small cap index up by 0.92%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.75%, Bankex up by 1.09%, Capital Goods up by 1.08%, PSU up by 0.92% and Power up by 0.81%, while IT down by 0.83%, TECK down by 0.60%, Oil & Gas down by 0.16% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 3.61%, SBI up by 3.60%, ICICI Bank up by 2.75%, GAIL India up by 2.43% and BHEL up by 2.18%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.05%, ONGC down by 1.43%, TCS down by 1.31%, Infosys down by 1.19% and HDFC down by 1.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid global slowdown, India’s handicraft exports surged by 10 percent to Rs 14,782 crore during April- December period of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 13,460 crore during the same period of last fiscal. According to the data released by the Textiles Ministry, in dollar terms, the value of exports has increased by 3 per cent, to $2,282 million during April-December 2015 from $2,215 million during April-December 2014.

Among handicrafts India exports are artmetal wares, woodwares, hand-printed textiles and scarves, embroidered and crochetted goods, shawls as artware, zari goods and imitation jewelry. The data showed that the size of the artmetal wares grew 6 per cent to Rs 3,943 crore, followed by woodwares 10 per cent to Rs 2,564 crore, handprinted textiles & scarves 18 per cent to Rs 699 crore, imitation jewellery 14 per cent to Rs 1,599 crore and miscellaneous handicrafts 12 per cent to Rs 4,033 crore.

In order to promote Indian Handicraft products and to showcase the rich heritage of India, the government is leveraging e-commerce to promote handloom products. The textiles Ministry’s Office of Development Commissioner (Handlooms), has engaged three e-commerce entities namely - Craftsvilla Handicrafts, Mumbai, Pegarse Technologies, Bangalore and Gocoop Solution & Services, Bangalore to promote handloom across eight states. These will operate in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Rajasthan.

Besides, the government has also created a policy framework under Brand India Handloom Partnership Framework to enter into partnership with leading handloom retail stores. As part of this framework, handloom retail stores will partner with the Office of Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Ministry of Textiles in selling Indian handloom brand products. The ministry has shortlisted 13 retail stores across 10 cities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7494.25, up by 5.15 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 7463.95 and 7510.95. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 3.94%, SBI up by 3.75%, Axis Bank up by 3.44%, PNB up by 2.69% and BHEL up by 2.37%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.02%, Indusind Bank down by 1.69%, ONGC down by 1.45%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.31% and Infosys down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Japanese market, the only major Asian market trading today, was up by 184.71 points or 1.10% to 17,004.30.