Benchmarks trade near highest point of the day

Indian equity benchmarks continued their firm trade hovering near the highest point of the day in late morning session on account of buying in frontline blue chip counters. The market digested US President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech where his rallying cry ‘Buy American-Hire American’ has put the $150- billion Indian IT industry on edge. The Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar tracking the gains in the Asian currencies markets. Traders 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. The market may remain volatile this week as traders may roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. January 2017 series to next month i.e. February 2017 series. The near month January 2017 derivatives contracts will expire on Wednesday i.e. January 25, 2017. Traders were seen piling position in Metals, PSU and Oil & Gas sector stocks. In scrip specific development, United Spirits was trading firm on reporting an over three-fold jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 147.70 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, on the back of lower finance costs and exceptional expense in the corresponding period last year. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 37.23 crore for the October-December period of the previous fiscal. Unichem Laboratories was trading in green on reporting 26.33 percent rise in standalone net profit to Rs 26.10 crore for the quarter ended December 31, mainly on account of robust sales. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 20.66 crore in the year-ago period.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading mostly in green, as investors continue to digest what Donald Trump means to their holdings. Japanese equities are a noted laggard as the yen leads broad currency gains in the dollar, rising nearly a full yen from late-Friday levels in the US. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,350 and 27,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1452:699, while 138 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27129.72, up by 95.22 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 26963.58 and 27159.68. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40%, while Small cap index was up by 0.62%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.86%, PSU up by 1.36%, Oil & Gas up by 1.33%, Realty up by 1.17% and FMCG up by 0.79%, while there were no losers. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.75%, ONGC up by 1.72%, Tata Steel up by 1.69%, Tata Motors up by 1.37% and SBI up by 1.25%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.39%, Axis Bank down by 0.88%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.75%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.43% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.35% 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 8391.00, up by 41.65 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 8327.20 and 8394.35. There were 38 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.32%, Grasim Industries up by 2.69%, GAIL India up by 2.59%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.29% and Tata Steel up by 1.88%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.51%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.36%, Axis Bank down by 0.91%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 0.81% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.78% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 0.52 points or 0.03% to 2,066.13, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 8.4 points or 0.5% to 1,673.29, Hang Seng increased 8.91 points or 0.04% to 22,894.82, Shanghai Composite increased 10.55 points or 0.34% to 3,133.69 and Taiwan Weighted increased 89.28 points or 0.96% to 9,420.74.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 decreased 122.12 points or 0.64% to 19,015.79 and Jakarta Composite decreased 6.06 points or 0.12% to 5,248.25.