Benchmarks trade jubilantly on firm global cues; Nifty reclaims 8,200 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-up opening and are trading jubilantly in early deals on Thursday, with frontline gauges recapturing 26,600 (Sensex) and 8,200 (Nifty) levels amid firm global cues. Sentiments also remained up-beat with finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that demonetisation will boost growth in long run. The finance minister said the country will now have a cleaner economy, cleaner ethics and better GDP, he added that the economy, in the long term, is looking for a major change and policy makers now have a vision. Traders also took some encouragement with S&P Global Ratings stating that India with a large domestic economy will be less affected by the changes in growth and monetary policy in the new set-up under Donald Trump administration.

Global cues too remained supportive with all the Asian counters, barring Shanghai Composite, trading in green at this point of time, led by Japanese market ahead of the Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s speech at a party for economists. The US markets coming off the initial sluggishness surged in last session, with Dow and the S&P 500 once again reaching new record closing highs, as traders looked ahead to the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement on Thursday.

Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too participated strongly in the rally. The market breadth remained in favor of advances, as there were 1,530 shares on the gaining side against 304 shares on the losing side while 70 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26600.12, up by 363.25 points or 1.38% after trading in a range of 26357.35 and 26604.12. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.18%, while Small cap index was up by 1.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.36%, Metal up by 2.29%, Industrials up by 1.93%, Consumer Durables up by 1.86% and Basic Materials up by 1.85%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 3.76%, Tata Steel up by 3.20%, Adani Ports &Special up by 2.78%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.37% and Hero MotoCorp up by 2.22%. On the flip side, the sole loser was Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.58%.

Meanwhile, global rating agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) in its latest report on effect of Trump’s victory in the presidential elections on Asia-Pacific economies, has said that India will be less affected by changes in growth and monetary policy in the new set-up under Donald Trump administration due to its large domestic economy. However, S&P said that many key US policies under the new administration remain undefined, leading to unusual uncertainty around the baseline outlook.

As per the report, the effect of changes in the US growth and monetary policy on Asia’s trade and general financial market confidence, whether positive or negative, will be greater on smaller and more open economies of the region. It added that countries with large domestic economies like China, Japan, India and Indonesia will be less affected. The rating agency also said a firm judgement could be drawn after formation of Trump's economic team.

The rating agency, however, listed both upside and downside for Asia- Pacific region under Trump administration. In case of downside, Trump administration would impose punitive import tariff of 45 percent on China basing on its currency manipulation, while on the upside Trump has argued for Keynesian- style infrastructure spending increases and tax cuts, which could boost US growth and demand for Asia’s exports, at least in the short run.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8212.45, up by 110.40 points or 1.36% after trading in a range of 8151.75 and 8216.10. There were 48 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors - DVR up by 4.43%, Tata Motors up by 3.87%, Tata Steel up by 3.42%, Adani Ports & Special up by 2.74% and Hindalco up by 2.49%. On the flip side, Aurobindo Pharma down by 0.73%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.65% and Bharti Infratel down by 0.30% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI gained 4.52 points or 0.28% to 1,636.99, Jakarta Composite rose 6.93 points or 0.13% to 5,272.29, KOSPI Index surged 24.45 points or 1.23% to 2,016.34, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 103.79 points or 1.12% to 9,367.68, Hang Seng added 147.46 points or 0.65% to 22,948.38 and Nikkei 225 was up by 150.25 points or 0.81% to 18,646.94. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 1.71 points or 0.05% to 3,220.53.