Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks started under pressure but later pared losses to turn positive and are trading in fine fettle in early deals, as investors stayed optimistically cautious post Trump inauguration. Traders also took some encouragement with the BRICS nation’s National Development Bank chief K V Kamath’s statement that India will continue to grow on the back of its consumption-driven economy. He also said that the demonetisation move in India would have only a 'short-term blip' after which India should be back on a clear growth path. However, gains remained capped with a major central revenue body asking Finance Minister Arun Jaitley not to implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) in a hurry and threatened to take legal recourse in case their concerns are not addressed, claiming that demonetisation has affected country’s growth.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time, though Japanese Nikkei was down by over a percent, as the dollar declined against yen after Donald Trump in his first days in office offered little news on his plans to boost growth. The US markets ended modestly higher in last session. Back home, there was broad based buying witnessed in the markets and apart from the blue chips, the broader markets too were showing upmove. The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,268 shares on the gaining side against 564 shares on the losing side, while 91 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27131.67, up by 97.17 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 26963.58 and 27159.68. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.26%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.27%, Oil & Gas up by 1.18%, PSU up by 1.08%, Realty up by 0.79% and Auto was up by 0.64%, while Telecom down by 0.50%, Capital Goods down by 0.25% and Healthcare was down by 0.11% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.75%, Tata Motors up by 1.60%, GAIL India up by 1.34%, Adani Ports up by 1.27% and Tata Steel was up by 1.22%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.01%, Axis Bank down by 1.11%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.85%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.67% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.27% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that it still does not know the exact number of junked currency notes that were in circulation and it is still reconciling the number of notes that were deposited back. RBI in written reply to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the question of total number of the scrapped currency deposited in banks after November 8, is understood to have informed that the exchange of the currency took place at thousands of bank branches and post offices over the 50 days demonetisation period. The collected notes were deposited in 4,000 currency chests and it is pending finalisation as of now, as physical verification and reconciliation are underway.

RBI further informed the panel that its Board meeting which recommended withdrawal of legal tender of Rs 500/1000 notes was held on November 8 at 5.30 pm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced about the demonetisation in his address to the nation at 8 pm on the same day after Cabinet's approval. The Members of Parliament in the PAC were also informed by the RBI that the matter related to demonetisation was under discussion between the government and the RBI for some months.

Earlier, briefing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance about demonetisation, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel has said that discussions between the central bank and the government over the demonetisation issue began in early 2016. He also said that about Rs 9.2 lakh crore have been reintroduced in the economy since the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were demonetised on November 8, 2016.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8384.35, up by 35.00 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 8327.20 and 8394.35. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.27%, BPCL up by 1.95%, Grasim Industries up by 1.90%, ONGC up by 1.75% and Tata Motors was up by 1.67%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.03%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.63%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.25%, Axis Bank down by 1.13% and Larsen & Toubro was down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index rose 0.76 points or 0.04% to 2,066.37, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 6.83 points or 0.41% to 1,671.72, Shanghai Composite gained 10.47 points or 0.34% to 3,133.61, Hang Seng added 13.05 points or 0.06% to 22,898.96 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 72.1 points or 0.77% to 9,403.56.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 209.89 points or 1.1% to 18,928.02 and Jakarta Composite was down by 2.49 points or 0.05% to 5,251.82.