Indian markets settle with modest gain; Sensex ends above 27900 mark

Indian equity markets that started the session on a sluggish note managed to eke out modest gains by the end of trade, as the benchmark indices clawed back into the green terrain in the last leg of trade on account of renewed buying interest by traders to square off F&O positions on expiry of October series. Sentiments got some support with report that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked secretaries at the Centre and chief secretaries in the state to analyse the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Report. Modi's remarks came hours after commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she was disappointed that the efforts and reforms undertaken by the Centre and the states had not been adequately captured. Sitharaman further added that the government intends to achieve the prime minister’s vision of ensuring that India finds a place in the top 50. Further, indicating a sense of confidence among global investors, latest data from the SEBI showed that more than 1,300 new foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have registered with capital markets regulator SEBI in April-August of 2016-17, showing a sign of their willingness to be part of India’s growth story. In the last fiscal, a total of 2,900 FPIs had received approval from SEBI. The number of FPIs with SEBI approval increased to 5,626 at the end of August from 4,311 in March-end, reflecting an addition of 1,315 such investors. FPI investors consider India as a preferred and stable market, given its macro-economic stability, long-term growth prospects and ongoing economic and social reforms. However, gains remained capped with the report that the Reserve Bank may not be able to achieve its medium term target of 4% inflation, even if food prices are managed as health and education prices could play spoil sport. Besides, disappointing earnings by some heavyweights and weak trade in other regional markets too weighed on market sentiment.

Many stock specific actions were seen during the session like Vijaya Bank hit a 52-week high of Rs 46.60. Further, IIFL Holdings rallied over ten percent after posting 30% Y-o-Y jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 183 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. On the other hand, Torrent Pharmaceuticals slipped after the company reported a 59% Y-o-Y drop in net profit at Rs 207 crorein Q2 FY17. Meanwhile, Tata group stocks remained shabby as ousted Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry accused directors at India's largest conglomerate of wrongfully dismissing him and warned that the tea-to-software giant may face $18 billion in write-downs because of five unprofitable businesses he inherited.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly lower on Thursday as investors awaited a fresh batch of data for indications on the state of the world economy. Chinese stocks came under pressure after latest micro data showed that growth in the nation’s industrial profits had slowed last month. China recorded 7.7% year-over-year growth in industrial profits in September, sharply down from the 19.5% growth the previous month. Japan's benchmark index Nikkei 225 ended lower on poor earnings forecasts from companies such as Nintendo and Canon disappointed the market, offsetting gains in domestic demand sensitive stocks. Meanwhile, European stocks edged lower in early trade despite positive economic reports as investors continued to wade through earnings reports and kept an eye on oil ahead of an OPEC committee meeting to prepare a production agreement.

Back home, the local benchmark got off to a sedate opening tracking the dismal leads prevailing in Asian markets following somber trade overnight in US markets. The frontline indices kept losing steam thereafter and even drifted to the lowest point in the session in noon trades. Thereafter started the road to recovery for the bourses which kept slowly but steadily moving towards the neutral line. The key gauges managed to gain further momentum and bounced into the positive terrain by the end of trade. Finally, the NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, ended flat at previous close of 8615.25, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index or Sensex gained around seventy nine points and ended above the psychological 27,900 mark. However, the broader markets failed to show any kind of fervor and settled on an uninspiring note, underperforming their larger peers by a fat margin.

The market breadth remained pessimistic as there were 1061 shares on the gaining side against 1604 shares on the losing side, while 261 shares remained unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 79.39 points or 0.29% to 27915.90, while the CNX Nifty ended flat at 8,615.25. 

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 27958.13 and 27665.60, respectively and there were 13 stocks on gainers side against 17 stocks on the losers side on the index. The broader indices made a negative closing; the BSE Mid cap index ended lower by 1.04%, while Small cap index was down by 0.77%.

The sole gaining sectoral index on the BSE was FMCG up by 0.55%, while Auto down by 1.36%, Consumer Durables down by 1.01%, IT down by 0.78%, Metal down by 0.76% and TECK down by 0.75% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 3.55%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.33%, ICICI Bank up by 1.94%, ITC up by 1.84% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.57%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 3.24%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.12%, Wipro down by 2.06%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.93% and Lupin down by 1.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman has expressed her disappointment over India's rank remaining almost unchanged in terms of ease of doing business released by the World Bank, and said that the various efforts and reforms undertaken by the Centre and states have not been adequately covered in the ranking released by the World Bank this year.

In the World Bank's latest 'Doing Business' 2017 report, India remained at the 130th position out of 190 countries globally, and managed to move up just one rank this year, even the one place improvement was because the last year's ranking was revised lower to 131 from which the country has improved its place by one spot. Sitharaman said that 'I am a bit disappointed. Not only the government of India, but every state is so actively engaged and wants to ease the situation... But for whatever reason, it has not been adequately captured in the ranking.'

She added that collectively, team India has been doing quite a lot of work and added that there was a need to better communicate to the stakeholders the ease of doing business initiatives brought out by the government. Referring to the intense competition among nations to improve their ranking and attract more investments, the minister said that it was, therefore, important to speed up reforms to help India find a place in the top 50.

The minister further said that the government has taken the right route in reforming and making ease of doing business a very important agenda for the Centre and states and now, it is important to interact with states even more to quickly identify many such things which are important so that its impact is visible at the ground level.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 8,624.85 and 8,550.25. There were 16 stocks in green against 35 stocks in red on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC up by 2.66%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.40%, ICICI Bank up by 1.92%, ITC up by 1.74% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.56%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 4.33%, Asian Paints down by 3.39%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.13%, Yes Bank down by 2.50% and Zee Entertainment down by 2.36% were the top losers.

The European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 12.36 points or 0.18% to 6,945.73, Germany’s DAX decreased 21.97 points or 0.21% to 10,687.71 and France’s CAC decreased 21.37 points or 0.47% to 4,513.22.

The Asian markets ended mostly lower on Thursday amid skepticism over OPEC's proposed deal to curb oil production. The yen recovered some ground against majors and a report showed profits earned by China's industrial firms slowed in September, keeping investors nervous. Traders also looked ahead to a slew of US data including Friday's crucial third-quarter GDP report for fresh clues about the timing of the next interest rate rise. Chinese shares ended lower, with a weaker yuan, liquidity concerns and slowing industrial profit growth, weighing on markets. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China's industrial profits grew only 7.7 percent year-on-year in September after expanding 19.5 percent in August. The increase in August was the fastest in three years. Japanese shares ended lower as Canon, a key exporter, revised down its full-year earnings forecast and the dollar weakened against the yen in late trading.