Benchmarks trade slightly in green in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a cautious start and are trading slightly in green in early deals on Monday, as traders took some encouragement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that results of the reforms undertaken by his government were visible and the country has transformed into 'one of the most open economies' in the world with a strong growth rate. Sentiments also got some support with report that India’s export during September 2016 has shown sign of revival, registering a growth of 4.62 per cent in dollar term to $22.88 billion as compared to $21.86 billion in September 2015.

Global cues too remained supportive with most of the Asian counters trading mostly in green at this point of time. The US markets made a modestly positive close in last session, but failed to sustain the early rally mood, on remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen at a Boston Fed conference.

Back home, banking stocks remained on buyers’ radar on report from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that Indian banks’ loans rose 10.4 percent in two weeks to September 30 from a year earlier. The PSU oil marketing companies too remained in action, as petrol price has been hiked by Rs 1.34 a litre, the fifth increase in two months and diesel by Rs 2.37 a litre on back of spike in global rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27722.13, up by 48.53 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 27663.82 and 27803.21. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.23%, Finance up by 0.72%, PSU up by 0.64%, Oil & Gas up by 0.35% and Consumer Durables up by 0.23%, while Telecom down by 1.47%, Auto down by 0.51%, Capital Goods down by 0.27%, FMCG down by 0.20% and TECK down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 5.44%, Axis Bank up by 1.83%, SBI up by 1.55%, NTPC up by 1.21% and ONGC up by 0.81%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.27%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.14%, Asian Paints down by 0.86%, Power Grid down by 0.76% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s export during September 2016 has shown sign of revival, registering a growth of 4.62 per cent in dollar term to $22.88 billion as compared to $21.86 billion in September 2015. In rupee term the exports was higher by 5.45 percent to Rs.152699.59 crore in September 2016 compared to Rs.144814.06 crore) during September,2015. However, cumulative value of exports for the period April-September 2016-17 was $131.40 billion as against $133.72 billion, registering a negative growth of 1.74 per cent in the same period last year. In Rupee term it was up by 2.43 percent to Rs.879475.63 crore from Rs.858622.52 crore. As per WTO statistics the growth in exports have fallen for USA by (-)6.42%, EU (-)8.39 %, China (-)4.36% but Japan exhibited positive growth 1.92% for July 2016 over the corresponding period of previous year.

Imports during September 2016 decreased by 2.54 percent in dollar terms to $31.22 billion, as compared to $32.03 billion in September 2015, while in rupee terms it was 1.78 percent lower to Rs.208356.00 crore from Rs.212130.85 in September, 2015. Cumulative value of imports for the period April-September 2016-17 was $174.40 billion as against $202.26 billion, registering a decline of 13.77 percent in same period last year. In Rupee term the cumulative imports was Rs.1167458.25 crore, down by 10.10 percent from Rs.1298646.11 crore in the same period last year. The trade deficit for April-September, 2016-17 was estimated at $ 43.00 billion which was 37.26 % lower than the deficit of $ 68.55 billion during April-September, 2015-16. Overall trade deficit for April- September 2016-17 is estimated at $ 16.12 billion which is 60.07 percent lower in Dollar terms than the level of $ 40.37 million during April-September 2015-16.

As per the data of Ministry of Commerce & Industry, export of petroleum goods decreased 1.43% to $2.55 billion in September 2016 as compared to $2.58 billion in same month last year, while Non-petroleum exports in September increased 5.44 percent to $20.33 billion as compared to $19.28 billion in same month last year. On other hand, oil imports during September 2016 rose 3.13 percent to 6.88 billion as against $6.67 billion in the corresponding period last year, while Non-oil imports during September 2016 dropped 4.04 percent to $24.33 billion as against $25.35 billion in the corresponding period last year.

Trade in services exports during August 2016 increased 4.74 percent to $13.38 billion and imports during same period rose to 8.71 percent to $8.05 billion. Further, the trade deficit for April-September, 2016-17 was estimated at $43.00 billion was 37.26 percent lower than the deficit of $68.54 billion during April-September, 2015-16.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8582.00, down by 1.40 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8567.35 and 8615.40. There were 13 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index, while 2 stocks remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 5.38%, Axis Bank up by 1.70%, SBI up by 1.23%, NTPC up by 1.14% and Infosys up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.36%, Idea Cellular down by 1.47%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.29%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.22% and Asian Paints down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 3.9 points or 0.13% to 3,067.71, Taiwan Weighted rose 7 points or 0.08% to 9,172.17, KOSPI Index gained 9.17 points or 0.45% to 2,031.83, Jakarta Composite added 14.46 points or 0.27% to 5,414.34 and Nikkei 225 was up by 37.85 points or 0.22% to 16,894.22. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 98.56 points or 0.42% to 23,134.75 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.88 points or 0.05% to 1,658.09.