Markets trade higher amid firm global cues

After falling around quarter a per cent in last session, Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are currently trading in fine fettle on account of buying amid firm global cues. US markets ended higher on Monday, with energy stock moving higher as oil rose, after comments from Fed Chair Janet Yellen remained positive on the economy while omitting a specific reference to the timing of a rate hike. Asian markets were trading mostly in green, extending gains from the previous session. On the domestic front, support also came in with a private report stating that India jumped 13 positions and was placed second in retail potential in the 2016 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI). It also said that India has become the world’s fastest growing economy. That coupled with a large population base and the easing of FDI regulations in the sector has made it an even more attractive market. Besides, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 28.30 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges that too supported sentiments. Meanwhile, the rupee rose 5 paise to 66.91 against the US dollar in early trade today even as the US Federal Chair Janet Yellen in a speech overnight said that one should not attach too much importance to the recent set of jobs data and that the rate hikes were on the cards.  However, some cautiousness may prevail in the markets ahead of the RBI's bi-monthly monetary policy review due later today.

All the sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in green led by Bankex, FMCG, Realty, Power and Auto. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1037: 465, while 70 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26861.57, up by 84.12 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 26829.53 and 26877.57. 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 0.26%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.47%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.66%, FMCG up by 0.60%, Realty up by 0.59%, Power up by 0.55% and Auto up by 0.54%, while there no losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 1.79%, SBI up by 1.18%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.03%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.99% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 0.34%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 0.30%, Lupin down by 0.26%, GAIL India down by 0.20% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after disappointing earnings numbers by the public sector banks (PSBs) in the final quarter, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has came in support of them indicating that their performance was not as bad as being projected, he added that PSBs actually made operating profits of Rs 1.40 lakh crore in 2015-16.

The Finance Minister after a high-level meeting to review the performance of the banking sector, said, “The overall operational profit of the PSBs last year was quite significant. It was in the excess of Rs 1.40 lakh crore... It is on account of the provisioning that overall the PSBs declared a net loss of about Rs 18,000 crore and a significant amount of provisioning having been made in the last two quarters of the fiscal.”

The meeting apart from Non Performing Assets (NPAs) or bad loans, reviewed the progress of financial inclusion schemes like Stand-up India and Mudra, credit flow to the industry and expansion of the banking sector. Jaitley said the government had earmarked Rs 25,000 crore for recapitalisation of the state-owned banks and would provide more funds if needed. He added that the government would examine various other suggestions for resolving the problem of stressed assets which came up during the meeting.

Later Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said that the government will examine the capital requirements of various public sector banks (PSBs) for the current fiscal to meet credit growth and NPA provisioning. He said we are going to go through process of analysis now because banks have finished announcing their results for 2015-16.With gross NPAs of PSBs touching an alarming level of Rs 5.34 lakh crore at March-end 2016, owing to the Reserve Bank of India-mandated balance sheet clean-up exercise, PSBs lending growth has slowed to 9.86% in FY16 from 12.7% in the year-ago period

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8229.50, up by 28.45 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 8223.90 and 8236.50. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 1.85%, SBI up by 1.33%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.92%, NTPC up by 0.88% and Hindalco up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Aurobindo Pharma down by 0.79%, Lupin down by 0.73%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.42%, Adani Ports &Special down by 0.39% and Eicher Motors down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 7.6 points or 0.46% to 1,656.59, KOSPI Index increased 19.72 points or 0.99% to 2,005.56, Jakarta Composite increased 31.97 points or 0.65% to 4,928.00, Nikkei 225 increased 59.82 points or 0.36% to 16,639.85, Taiwan Weighted increased 68.91 points or 0.8% to 8,666.02 and Hang Seng increased 159.93 points or 0.76% to 21,190.15

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 4.31 points or 0.15% to 2,929.79.