Markets trade higher in early deals

Extending their northward journey for fifth straight session, Indian equity markets have made a positive start and extended gains in early deals, as market participants shrugged off Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen’s comments which suggested that an interest rate hike could be around the corner. Positive trade in global markets too supported sentiments. US markets ended higher on Friday as the government revised its figures for economic growth higher and consumer sentiment rose. Asian markets were trading mostly in green taking positive cues from Wall Street.  On the domestic front, some support came in with private report that a normal monsoon this year is expected to provide 20 per cent boost to the income of farmers, whose debt leverage has touched 22 per cent following two years of droughts. Further, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 479.89 crore on Friday, 27 May 2016, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges that too kept supporting sentiments. 

In the scrip specific development, ITC was trading higher on the NSE after the stock turned ex-dividend for Rs 8.50 per share on Monday.

On the sectoral front, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading in green, with prominent gainers being the stocks from Metal, Realty, PSU, IT and Auto counters. On the flip side, stocks from Capital Goods and FMCG counters were the only losers of the session. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1079: 544, while 84 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26779.71, up by 126.11 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 26684.35 and 26794.96. There were 21 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.44%, while Small cap index gained 0.67%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.06%, Realty up by 1.36%, PSU up by 1.04%, IT up by 0.75% and Auto up by 0.69%, while Capital Goods down by 0.25% and FMCG down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 4.39%, Tata Motors up by 2.18%, Axis Bank up by 1.47%, SBI up by 1.38% and Tata Steel up by 1.06%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.42%, ITC down by 1.17%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.44%, Lupin down by 0.41% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ahead of the release of the India's national income figures for fourth quarter, as well as for 2015-16, home grown rating agency, India Ratings and Research has said that the economic growth of the country is expected to be 7.5 percent in 2015-16, lower than advance estimate of 7.6 percent by the Central Statistics Office.

The agency said it expects the growth rate for last quarter of 2015-16 at 7.4 percent, which translates into the 2015-16 GDP growth of 7.5 percent. It also noted that any change in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 or the annual 2014-15 growth by the CSO, will have an impact on the quarterly and annual growth estimates.

As per the agency the growth in industrial GVA during the fourth quarter of 2015-16 is likely to have declined from the previous quarter level, however Ind-Ra estimates it to have been better than year-ago period. It also believes that the agricultural GVA growth can surprise positively, despite the second consecutive year of sub-par monsoons, mainly due to the unseasonal rainfall during the last quarter of 2014-15.

Earlier in the year, data released by the Central Statistics Office projected a growth of 7.6% in 2015-16 against the government’s more modest expectation of 7-7.5% growth. This despite growth decelerating to 7.3% in the quarter ended December from 7.7% in the previous quarter.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8191.90, up by 35.25 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 8165.10 and 8200.00. There were 39 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 9.03% and Coal India up by 4.41% and Tata Motors up by 2.12% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.65% and Axis Bank up by 1.60%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.22%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.49%, ITC down by 1.14%, HCL Tech. down by 0.69% and ICICI Bank down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Shanghai Composite increased 5.14 points or 0.18% to 2,826.19, Jakarta Composite increased 26.98 points or 0.56% to 4,841.72, Taiwan Weighted increased 38.74 points or 0.46% to 8,502.35, Hang Seng increased 146.78 points or 0.71% to 20,723.55 and Nikkei 225 increased 150.36 points or 0.89% to 16,985.20.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 8.63 points or 0.53% to 1,628.56 and KOSPI Index decreased 2.5 points or 0.13% to 1,966.67.