Indian equity benchmarks enter into positive territory

Recovering from day’s low Indian equity benchmarks enter into positive territory in late afternoon session on the back of buying in front liners, though investors remained cautious ahead of US presidential election outcome. Sentiments got some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Centre will step up on reforms to attract more investment and fill up infrastructure deficit. Some support also came with private report stating that retail inflation is expected to soften to 4.1 percent in October and ease further to sub-4 percent level by November-December, largely helped by favorable base effect. Besides, firm trend in Asian and European markets coupled with appreciation in rupee against dollar also supported upside. In scrip specific development, Tata motor gained over 6 percent as its arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reported its best ever October retail sales of 46,325 vehicles, up 11% compared to October 2015.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27505.86, up by 46.87 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 27406.76 and 27600.71. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.10%, while Small cap index was up by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.40%, Industrials up by 1.08%, Oil & Gas up by 0.68%, PSU up by 0.36% and Metal was up by 0.32%, while Healthcare down by 1.41%, FMCG down by 0.48%, Realty down by 0.47%, Capital Goods down by 0.25% and IT down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 6.18%, GAIL India up by 2.22%, Asian Paints up by 1.43%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.20% and Axis Bank up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.42%, Cipla down by 1.83%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.80%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.61% and ITC down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley has said that the Centre will push up reforms to attract more investment and fill up infrastructure deficit faster than now, though he emphasized that there is a lot of anxiety on the growth front. He said that unlike developing economies, voices seeking protectionism are almost absent as the economy expands.

According to Jaitley, one of the great strengths of the Indian economy is that even though India is growing at the fastest rate than any major economy, but by the their own standard they are still not satisfied. There is a great amount of impatience in India and a far greater amount of realization that they can grow even faster. He added that after seven decades of independence, India’s voice is increasingly getting noticed in the world, therefore to reform more, to open more, to attract more investment, to expand more in manufacturing, they need to fill up the infrastructure deficit faster than what they have been doing.

Further, he said that manufacturing sector have growth potential. The share of manufacturing has to increase to 25 per cent from 15 per cent level and this recognized that it creating far more jobs and expanding far better. He also said that there is a huge potential to grow in the eastern India and rural areas have a deficit and offer a tremendous potential to invest. He added that after deciding to quit the European Union, Britain is looking outside Europe and sees countries like India as one of its great future partners in trade and business.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8518.95, up by 21.90 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 8480.10 and 8543.15. There were 34 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 6.51%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 5.25%, BHEL up by 3.42%, GAIL India up by 2.15% and Tech Mahindra was up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.77%, HCL Tech down by 1.98%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.89%, Cipla down by 1.86% and Aurobindo Pharma was down by 1.73% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index gained 5.8 points or 0.29% to 2,003.38, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 10.46 points or 0.63% to 1,661.05, Shanghai Composite increased 14.55 points or 0.46% to 3,147.89, Taiwan Weighted added 27.59 points or 0.30% to 9,217.43, Jakarta Composite surged 83.28 points or 1.55% to 5,469.48 and Hang Seng was up by 108.07 points or 0.47% to 22,909.47. On other hand, Nikkei 225 was down by 5.83 points or 0.03% to 17,171.38.

All the European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 1.38 points or 0.02% to 6,808.28, France’s CAC gained 4.2 points or 0.09% to 4,465.41 and Germany’s DAX was up by 14.49 points or 0.14% to 10,471.44.