Markets trade with modest gains in early deals on Friday

After managing a flat closing in last session, domestic equity markets have made a positive start and are trading with modest gains in morning deals, tracking surge on Wall Street and Asia as commodity prices continued to strengthen amid a relentless sell-off in the greenback following the U.S. Federal Reserve's cautious stance on interest rates. Traders were getting some support with report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 744.49 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.  Meanwhile, positive trade in Indian Rupee also supported the sentiment. The rupee appreciated 16 paise to 66.58 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday. However, upside remained capped with a private report which said that India's growth recovery continues to be uneven and last year's positive growth momentum has slowed down considerably.

In the scrip specific development, Dhanuka Agritech surged 5 percent on the BSE after the company received a licence to manufacture insecticides. 

On the global front, the US markets ended higher on Thursday as a plummeting dollar helped push oil prices above $40 a barrel for the first time in more than three months.  Asian markets were trading mostly in green after U.S. indexes ended higher and oil prices hit their highest levels for this year. However, Japanese shares bucked the trend as the dollar's fall against the yen is seen hurting the country's exporters.

Back home, all the sectoral indices on the BSE, barring FMCG, were trading in green led by Metal, IT, TECK, Realty and Oil & Gas.  The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 860: 664 while 66 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24713.58, up by 36.21 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 24711.79 and 24778.98. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.11%, while Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.95%, IT up by 0.91%, TECK up by 0.88%, Realty up by 0.83% and Oil & Gas up by 0.37%, while FMCG down by 0.17% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.62%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.14%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.06%, Wipro up by 1.02% and Infosys up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 4.35%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 2.59%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.10%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.02% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a move that could change the whole dynamics of the calculation of the consumer price index (CPI) - a key indicator considered by the Reserve Bank of India while determining monetary policy, the statistics ministry is planning to include ecommerce in the calculation of CPI.

Though, the move was still not confirmed but it is said that the ministry wants to refine the CPI basket of goods by capturing price movements in the online space, as more Indians take to shopping online for necessities such as groceries apart from clothing and footwear, a trend that's not getting captured in the data set.

Online shopping is presently not in the CPI basket and since price movements may be different for a few items as compared to the regular shopping, there is some scope of improvement by including some of them. It has also been said that the ministry has identified some online retailers with RBI’s help to understand price movements due to discounts offered by them.

The move is still in the preliminary stages, as last year only, the Central Statistics Office revised the CPI base year from 2010 to 2012 to make it consistent with the international practice of shorter reference periods for most food articles and longer reference periods for items of infrequent consumption and purchase and if a change in the index has to be done, it will be done only when the base is revised again.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7530.50, up by 17.95 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 7524.65 and 7543.45. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.19%, Hindalco up by 2.78%, ACC up by 2.26%, Idea Cellular up by 2.04% and Cairn India up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 4.04%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 2.02%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.15%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.14% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, KOSPI Index increased 3.59 points or 0.18% to 1,991.58, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.18 points or 0.3% to 1,708.37, Jakarta Composite increased 8.07 points or 0.17% to 4,893.76, Taiwan Weighted increased 51.6 points or 0.59% to 8,786.14, Shanghai Composite increased 54.62 points or 1.88% to 2,959.46 and Hang Seng increased 143.05 points or 0.7% to 20,646.86.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 217.1 points or 1.28% to 16,719.28.