Benchmarks continue to trade in green in noon session

Indian equity markets sustained the positive momentum in Wednesday noon trades as the frontline indices surged over quarter percent on account of continued buying by domestic institutional investors amid expectations of positive GDP data to be released later in the day. While hopes of strong GDP for September quarter helped investors’ sentiment, the side-effects of demonetisation continue to have a bearing on the market. The general expectation is that economic growth accelerated to 7.5 per cent in the September quarter from 7.1 per cent in the June quarter but lower than 7.9 per cent growth posted for the March quarter. Investors’ morale also remained upbeat with a private report indicating that government is expected to meet its fiscal deficit target of 3 per cent for the next financial year on account of additional revenue from penalty on black money and deposits under the income disclosure.

Strong U.S. growth data lifted stock across markets in overnight trade, but that may not be good news for emerging markets like India, as Fed is expected to make a rate hike at the Fed policy review on December 13-14. US consumer confidence index surged to 107.1 in October from an upwardly revised 100.8 in October. Asian stocks tried to stabilize after a rocky November month drew to a close, but Wednesday's session brought new anxieties as Chinese equities and commodities tanked amid worries that Beijing's efforts to support its currency could squeeze liquidity. Oil bounced as investors looked ahead to developments at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting in Vienna later in the day.

Back home, stocks from Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Banking counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Metal and Realty counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, Idea Cellular slipped after the reports suggested that Axiata is looking to sell its 20% stake in the telecom firm. On the other hand, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) rallied after its board said it would consider issuance of equity shares as well as optionally convertible debentures to lenders under the scheme for the sustainable structuring of stressed assets. The market breadth remained optimistic as there were 1524 shares on the gaining side against 666 shares on the losing side, while 151 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26492.24, up by 98.23 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 26395.50 and 26531.37. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.55%, while Small cap index up by 1.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.82%, Capital Goods up by 1.69%, Bankex up by 1.01%, Oil & Gas up by 0.42% and PSU up by 0.37%, while Metal down by 0.62% and Realty down by 0.06% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.14%, ICICI Bank up by 2.07%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.23%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.88% and Sun Pharma up by 0.77%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 0.67%, Reliance Industries down by 0.58%, Tata Steel down by 0.54%, Power Grid down by 0.34% and Coal India down by 0.26% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has ordered LPG producers to supply all the cooking gas (LPG) they produce locally to state-owned oil companies only, and has asked the private retailers to source their requirements through imports. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, in an order said that sale of indigenously produced LPG is not permitted to the entities other than government oil companies and all domestically produced liquefied petroleum gas should necessarily be sold to PSUs for subsidised sale to consumers.

The ministry further stated that instances have been noticed of all locally produced LPG not being sold to oil marketing companies - IOC, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and some domestic LPG is also being sold to parallel marketeers in violation of Ministry’s order and held that sale of LPG by domestic producers to anyone other than state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) is not permissible under LPG control order. The ministry has asked all LPG producers including Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), GAIL India and RIL as well as parallel marketeers to comply with the order.

As per the control order non-state LPG sellers or parallel marketeer cannot source the fuel from domestic refiners. They have to import LPG if they intend to sell the cooking fuel in domestic market. The LPG control order of 2000 defines parallel marketeer as someone who is carrying on business of importing, storing, transporting, marketing and distributing of LPG. It does not prohibit the parallel marketeer from producing LPG but it cannot sell such production directly to consumers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8178.40, up by 36.25 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 8139.25 and 8188.80. There were 33 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 2.61%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.55%, ICICI Bank up by 2.21%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.19% and Indusind Bank up by 1.89%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.02%, Reliance Industries down by 0.87%, Hindalco down by 0.80%, GAIL India down by 0.70% and Tata Steel down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index surge 0.35%, Taiwan Weighted gained 0.24%, Hang Seng increased 0.28%, Nikkei 225 rose 0.07% and Jakarta Composite was up by 0.67%. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite decreased 0.87% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.14%.