Indian benchmark indices continue to trade higher

Key benchmark indices continue to trade higher in the early afternoon session amid buying in PSU, Metal, Realty, Banking and Oil & Gas stocks. Trading sentiments remained on optimistic note with the report that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India increased by 30% at $21.62 billion during the April-September period of the current fiscal as against $16.63 billion in the same period last fiscal. Ease of doing business and relaxation in the FDI policy are helping to attract more and more FDI in the country. Some support also came with the report that National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has pegged India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 7.6 percent for the fiscal year 2016-17, backed by pick-up in rural demand and positive signals’ on the manufacturing front. Besides, a firm trend at Asian markets too supported the rise. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 27,400 and 8,500 levels respectively, with gains of around a percent. In scrip specific development, State-run lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) was up by over 5 percent after it reported better-than-expected earnings along with a marginal improvement in asset quality for the September quarter.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has said a review of new evidence gave it no reason to change its earlier decision that U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shouldn’t face charges related to her use of a private email server.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27480.56, up by 206.41 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 27452.37 and 27591.15. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.26%, while Small cap index was up by 1.60%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.73%, Metal up by 1.65%, Realty up by 1.59%, Bankex up by 1.33% and Oil & Gas up by 1.26%, while there were no losing indices on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Lupin up by 7.11%, SBI up by 3.15%, ITC up by 2.67%, Tata Steel up by 2.10% and ICICI Bank up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.23%, TCS down by 1.12%, HDFC down by 0.53%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.52% and Wipro down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s economic think-tank, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has pegged India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at 7.6 percent for the fiscal year 2016-17, backed by pick-up in rural demand and positive signals’ on the manufacturing front. It said that the anticipated improvement in the agricultural sector and the associated increase in rural demand will push the economic growth upward.

NCAER said that the manufacturing sector is giving positive signals with Purchasers' Managers Index (PMI), Index of Industrial Production for core sectors and auto sales going up and the domestic aviation sector growth continues to be a robust. However, other service index indicators continue to be muted. Food inflation is also showing signs of dampening in the latter part of the second quarter. However, fuel inflation may revive. Although urban demand is predicted to remain strong, external demand continues to be volatile.

Economic think-tank estimated that the output of kharif food grains is expected to revive with an increase of 10 to 11 percent over last year's output of 124 million tonnes. It further said that India's fiscal position remained under stress during first half of the current fiscal. It added that despite healthy growth in tax revenues, the combination of rising expenditure and lower-than-expected non-tax revenues is likely to ‘test the government's resolve’ to abide by the fiscal deficit target set out in Budget 2016-17.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8509.25, up by 75.50 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 8493.65 and 8535.85. There were 41 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 7.40%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 5.65%, Bank Of Baroda up by 3.51%, BHEL up by 3.27% and SBI up by 3.19%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 2.24%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.30%, TCS down by 1.13%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.61% and Wipro down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.8 points or 0.05% to 1,649.04, Shanghai Composite jumped 1.23 points or 0.04% to 3,126.54, Jakarta Composite increased 6.72 points or 0.13% to 5,369.38, KOSPI Index surged 15.56 points or 0.79% to 1,997.58, Taiwan Weighted was up by 121.69 points or 1.34% to 9,189.84, Hang Seng increased 143.63 points or 0.63% to 22,786.25 and Nikkei 225 added 271.85 points or 1.61% to 17,177.21