Markets strengthen further supported by healthcare and consumer goods

Indian markets despite some choppiness were maintaining their gains with benchmarks Sensex and Nifty comfortably holding their crucial levels of 26250 and 8050 respectively in the early noon trade. The markets extended gains of last session as investors stepped up buying coupled with short covering a day ahead of the F&O series expiry. Markets were getting some support from NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement, who expressing his support for the demonetisation of high-value currency said that demonetisation was a move towards formal economy. He said it is the government's drive to promote digital transactions and a less cash economy so as to move from the informal to greater formalisation of the economic system. Earlier the economists and experts brainstormed on issues like job creation, agriculture and skill development at NITI Aayog, before briefing Prime Minister Narendra Modi on steps that could be taken in the upcoming Budget. Back on street, there was slight cautiousness due to weakness in rupee which was capping the gains. The domestic currency was trading weak on account of buying of the American currency by companies and importers amid mixed global cues. On sectoral front while all the indices were trading in green healthcare and consumer goods have taken the lead. The broader indices are outperforming the benchmarks with quiet a margin.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26329.72, up by 116.28 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 26216.54 and 26345.30. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.18%, while Small cap index gained 1.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.41%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 1.01%, TECK up by 0.94%, IT up by 0.88%, Realty up by 0.81%, Power up by 0.75% and PSU up by 0.73%, while there were no losers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.00%, Coal India up by 1.95%, Wipro up by 1.94%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.49% and Asian Paints up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.84%, Tata Motors down by 0.50%, Reliance Industries down by 0.50%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.12% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to transform India into a digital economy, the government is planning to unveil the United Payment Interface (UPI) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platforms with new features. The newer version of the UPI and USSD platforms will enable customers to transact digitally either with or without an internet connection.

In a week, the new easier-to-use application for UPI would be launched and will feature a single app that a user can download to transact across various banks. Also, the USSD platform will be upgraded which enable banking through feature phones. However, the new app will not replace the existing ones. It will be in the form of a skeletal version of the apps already present, with basic features such as ability to send or receive money, linking of accounts, saving profile of the user, changing the language, recording beneficiary details and providing balance enquiry.

According to NPCI’s Managing Director AP Hota, which hosts the two platforms and handles all retail payments in the country, the number of UPI transactions has doubled to 70,000 with 4.2 million registered users. Hota believes that in the new version of UPI app, more functions will be added in the hope that instead of upgrading their individual apps, the banks will switch to the common app. With regards to the USSD platform, NPCI wants to integrate it with UPI because the biggest challenge with this platform so far has been that bulk of the transactions did not involve transfer of money. However, now 5000 transactions per day on USSD involve transfer of money.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8075.30, up by 42.45 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 8033.25 and 8076.15. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 3.47%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.45%, Bosch up by 2.23%, Coal India up by 2.20% and Grasim Industries up by 2.10%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 0.74%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 0.64%, Tata Motors down by 0.62%, Reliance Industries down by 0.52% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were showing mixed trend, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 7.43 points or 0.46% to 1,627.11, Hang Seng gained 72.48 points or 0.34% to 21,647.24, Taiwan Weighted was higher by 92.13 points or 1.01% to 9,201.40 and Jakarta Composite increased by 96.39 points or 1.89% to 5,199.34.

On the other hand, KOSPI Index was down by 15.26 points or 0.75% to 2,026.91, Shanghai Composite declined by 10.74 points or 0.34% to 3,103.92 and Nikkei 225 was tad lower by 1.34 points or 0.01% to 19,401.72.