Markets continue to trade firm in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade firm in early noon session on the back of value buying by fund and retail investors in the select blue chip counters. Sentiment got upbeat with the Finance Minister’s statement that the India is doing much better than other economics and has maintained 7.65% growth in FY 16 Vs 7.2% in FY 15 despite international headwinds. He also said that government has taken several initiatives to boost investment climate. On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower for a seventh straight session on Thursday, as mixed economic data did nothing to assuage concerns about global growth. Back home, both the Sensex and Nifty were trading above their crucial 25,250 and 7,700 level, respectively.

In scrip specific development, IndiaBulls Real Estate was trading higher with the company acquired a majority stake of 51.18 percent in the Singapore-listed business trust IPIT with acquisition of additional 2.77 crore shares through its subsidiary, Grapene.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25253.72, up by 151.99 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 25162.94 and 25265.49. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.29%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.66%, Power up by 0.85%, FMCG up by 0.74%, Capital Goods up by 0.74% and Auto up by 0.71%, while TECK down by 0.45%, Oil & Gas down by 0.28%, IT down by 0.23% and Consumer Durables down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 3.44%, Tata Motors up by 2.50%, Lupin up by 1.55%, BHEL up by 1.54% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.54%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.50%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.15%, Asian Paints down by 0.42%, Infosys down by 0.37% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.30% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, sounding an alarm bell, President Pranab Mukherjee has said that falling exports is an area of concern despite a healthy current account situation, as it impacts economic performance, industrial growth and employment opportunities. He pointed out that India’s exports of goods have been continuously declining since December 2014, although services exports fared slightly better.

President further said that with global trade expected to remain sluggish in 2016-17 as well, all efforts need to be made to retain the country’s share in the world market, and then make it grow. He added that Indian policy makers and industry need to be innovative to capture global markets, with customised products and aggressive marketing backed by quality control and high standards.

Mukherjee also said that while the export sector remained bleak, some comfort was brought about by falling global commodity prices, which led to a dwindling import bill and a healthy current account deficit of 1.4 per cent of the GDP in first three quarters of 2015-16.

The President said that India need to focus on other important drivers of growth as well such as infrastructure, human capital, simplification of rules and procedures and improved access to finance. India’s exports have fallen for two consecutive years with a decline of 15.85 per cent in 2015-16 to $261.13 billion compared to exports of $310 billion in 2014-15 and worth $314 billion the year before.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7739.75, up by 33.20 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 7714.60 and 7743.50. There were 28 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC up by 3.53%, Tata Motors up by 2.59%, BHEL up by 2.13% , Lupin up by 1.65% and Sun Pharma up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 4.51%, Adani Ports &Special down by 3.10%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.37%, BPCL down by 1.26% and Zee Entertainment down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; Hang Seng decreased 66.52 points or 0.32% to 20,459.31, Taiwan Weighted decreased 17.51 points or 0.21% to 8,167.96, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 9.16 points or 0.55% to 1,648.42 and Shanghai Composite decreased 0.74 points or 0.02% to 2,990.53.