Markets trade in green in early deals

Indian equity markets are trading with gains of over quarter a percent in early deals on Monday, as investors are pinning a lot of hopes on the upcoming Budget that will be rolled out on Feb 29. The Rail Budget will come out on February 25 and the pre-Budget economic survey will be presented on February 26. Further, support also came in with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) raising India's growth forecast compared to 7.3 percent expansion projected in November 2015. It has said that Indian economy will continue to see robust growth at 7.4 percent in the next financial year even as only modest recovery is expected in advanced economies. The weakness in rupee was unable to deter the sentiment of the markets. The rupee depreciated 23 paise to hit its August 2013 low of 68.69 against American currency after stronger than expected US inflation data brightened the prospects of rate hikes in US. However, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 191.73 crore during the previous trading session on Friday, 19 February 2016, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.  On the sectoral front, most of the indices on BSE were trading in green, with prominent gainers being the stocks from Capital Goods, Realty, Metal, Auto and Bankex counters. On the flip side, stocks from FMCG and Consumer Durables counters were the only losers.

In the scrip specific development, Divis Laboratories was trading higher on the BSE after the company said that the US health regulator has conducted a successful inspection of its Unit-2 facility at Visakhapatnam this month.

On the global front, the US markets ended mixed on Friday, mostly shaking off pressure from declines in oil prices to post their best weekly gain of the year so far. Asian markets were trading mostly in green despite the lackluster cues from Wall Street on Friday, after oil prices rose slightly in Asian trades. Meanwhile, news that China has replaced the head of its securities regulator lifted shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,200 and 23,750 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 998: 429 while 74 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23779.77, up by 70.62 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 23674.86 and 23786.70. There were 23 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining, while one stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.58%, while Small cap index gained 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.89%, Realty up by 0.87%, Metal up by 0.79%, Auto up by 0.72% and Bankex up by 0.64%, while FMCG down by 0.74% and Consumer Durables down by 0.12% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.23%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.21%, Tata Motors up by 1.84%, ONGC up by 1.35% and Reliance Industries up by 1.21%. On the flip side, ITC down by 3.25%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.40%, NTPC down by 0.58%, GAIL India down by 0.52% and HDFC down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after the global rating agency Moody’s pegged India's growth at 7.5% for next two years, saying that it’s insulated from turmoil, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) too has raised India's growth forecast compared to 7.3 percent expansion projected in November 2015. OECD said that Indian economy will continue to see robust growth at 7.4 percent in the next financial year even as only modest recovery is expected in advanced economies.

In its latest Interim Economic Outlook report of OECD, while the global growth estimate has been cut to 3% this year and 3.3 per cent in 2017, down 0.3 percentage points in both years from its November forecast, India has emerged as the only large economy that's been upgraded.

The Paris-based think tank noted that growth in emerging markets such as Russia, Brazil and India has been slowed by plunge in the prices of the commodities they export and said that in emerging market economies, monetary support should be provided where possible, taking into account inflation developments and capital market responses.

In the OECD’s global forecast, the downgrade was especially sharp for the US, with the OECD now projecting 2 per cent growth in 2016, down from its previous 2.5 per cent estimate, and 2.2 per cent in 2017, down from 2.4 per cent. It said the boost to domestic demand from strong job growth will likely ease as the US approaches full employment. In the euro area, 1.4 per cent growth is expected this year and 1.7 per cent in 2017, down 0.4 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively. In Japan, the group projects growth of 0.8 per cent this year, down from its previous forecast of 1 per cent and 0.6 per cent in 2017, down from 0.7 per cent. China's economic forecast was unchanged at 6.5 per cent this year and 6.2 per cent in 2017, but those are down markedly from previous years. The OECD said advanced economies should continue to maintain low interest rates to support growth but that's not enough. The low rates should prod governments to borrow more and increase spending.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7230.75, up by 20.00 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 7200.70 and 7231.40. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bosch up by 3.24%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.99%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.98%, Idea Cellular up by 1.94% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.77%. On the flip side, ITC down by 3.14%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.53%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.40%, BPCL down by 0.89% and NTPC down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.07 points or 0% to 1,674.95, Shanghai Composite increased 57.99 points or 2.03% to 2,918.01, Nikkei 225 increased 92.94 points or 0.58% to 16,060.11 and Hang Seng increased 174.05 points or 0.9% to 19,459.55.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 10.14 points or 0.12% to 8,314.90, KOSPI Index decreased 4.49 points or 0.23% to 1,911.75 and Jakarta Composite decreased 1.86 points or 0.04% to 4,695.70.