Markets trade in green in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in range bound with positive bias in early noon session, on account of buying by investors in the front line blue chip counters. Sentiment improved with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Indian economy is estimated to register 7.6% growth in FY-16. He also said that good monsoon forecast & low oil prices are key drivers of economic growth and the government is focusing on conventional power generation, rural electrification, irrigation projects, rural housing etc. Some support also came in with India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General -- Laxman Singh Rathore’s statement that Southwest monsoon has hit the Andaman and Nicobar island two days before its normal date, but a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal is likely to ‘weaken’ its progress, which will result in delay of its onset in Kerala. Besides, strength in Asian markets and rise in crude oil prices, too maintained uptrend in the markets. Meanwhile, Chinese media has said that the global attention India is receiving as a new investment destination is touching a “sensitive nerve” in China as the fast growing Indian consumer market may 'steal China thunder’.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, as investors restored calm a day after worries about the Fed's rate hike signals prompted sell-offs. Back home, in scrip specific development, share of GHCL rallied over 7% after the company reported 56% year on year (YoY) growth in net profit at Rs 78 crore in March quarter (Q4FY16). Pidilite Industries was trading higher after the company reported a 48.97% jump in standalone net profit to Rs 115.04 crore for the March quarter. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 77.22 crore for the same period last year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25451.12, up by 51.40 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 25379.75 and 25498.95. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green and red; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index down by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.58%, FMCG up by 0.57%, IT up by 0.22%, Power up by 0.19% and TECK up by 0.19%, while Realty down by 0.82%, Metal down by 0.01% and Oil & Gas down by 0.01% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &Special up by 2.53%, ONGC up by 1.45%, HDFC up by 1.20%, GAIL India up by 1.01% and ITC up by 1.00%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 7.05%, ICICI Bank down by 1.15%, Tata Steel down by 0.95%, Cipla down by 0.70% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to enable India take early remedial action on exports rejected by the US, the Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) is signing a confidentiality agreement with the US Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) for prompt sharing of crucial information related to the rejects. The confidentiality agreement will be put in place soon which will allow India to keep a real time tab on what is happening to the country’s exports and will also enable to try and rectify things as soon as a problem arises so that number of rejections goes down.

Details of all Indian products that are rejected, the reason for rejection, appeals filed, if any, and the final action taken by the US will be supplied to the Export Inspection Council (EIC) by the US Food and Drugs Administration (USFDA) without delay.

At present, while India does get to know when a food consignment gets rejected in the US, it does not get to know immediately the details of who the exporter is and what exactly is being objected to by the US. Once the confidentiality agreement is in place, India will have a more correct picture of the actual number of rejections although the USFDA website will not make any changes in the way it records data.

According to the information available on the USFDA website, the agency has refused entry to 11,664 Indian products which includes medicine, bakery products, fried snacks, spices, basmati rice, fisheries and herbal products, over the last five years. However, Indian Commerce Ministry said that the actual number is lower as the website sometimes double-counts and also does not make corrections when some consignments are eventually allowed after appeals are filed.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7793.70, up by 10.30 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 7773.40 and 7811.10. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &Special up by 2.94%, Tata Power up by 1.46%, ONGC up by 1.45%, Idea Cellular up by 1.26% and HDFC up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 6.88%, BPCL down by 1.88%, Tata Steel down by 1.20%, ICICI Bank down by 1.09% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading higher, KOSPI Index increased 0.89 points or 0.05% to 1,947.67, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.09 points or 0.07% to 1,634.85, Shanghai Composite increased 1.87 points or 0.07% to 2,808.77, Jakarta Composite increased 4.68 points or 0.1% to 4,708.90, Taiwan Weighted increased 35.28 points or 0.44% to 8,131.26, Nikkei 225 increased 89.69 points or 0.54% to 16,736.35 and Hang Seng increased 219.84 points or 1.12% to 19,914.17.