Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Key benchmark indices continued to trade in positive territory in the afternoon session supported by gain in Power, banking and Consumer Durables sector stocks. Traders took some support with the Finance Ministry’s statement that the drive to transform India will continue in Budget 2017-18 to be unveiled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1. Some support also came with President Pranab Mukherjee’s statement that demonetisation may have led to “temporary” slowdown in economy but it will bring more transparency in the system. Meanwhile, the credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research in its latest report has stated that in the forthcoming budget scheduled to be presented on February 1, 2017, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may have to provide stimulus to the economy to ease the pain of demonetisation. Back on street, Sensex and Nifty were trading above the crucial 27,900 and 8,650 levels respectively, with gains of over half percent. In scrip specific development, NTPC was up by over one and half percent after raising 500 million Euro through overseas bonds sale that perhaps the first longest tenor euro-denominated issuance by an Indian company.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the mixed cues from Wall Street and higher crude oil prices. Some of the markets are shut for the Lunar New Year holidays. Japan’s national core CPI rose 0.2% year-on-year in December, below the expected 0.3% pace.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27901.76, up by 193.62 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 27759.48 and 27969.48. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.93%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.87%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.35%, PSU up by 1.28%, Bankex up by 1.25%, Consumer Durables up by 1.14% and Capital Goods up by 0.92%, while FMCG down by 0.44% and Realty down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.27%, Axis Bank up by 2.53%, HDFC up by 2.17%, GAIL India up by 2.11% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.96%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.30%, Lupin down by 1.24%, ITC down by 1.04%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.03% and Tata Motors down by 0.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) responsible for printing currency has said that the quantum of new currency notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 printed before the government’s announcement of demonetisation on November 8 cannot be disclosed as it may affect interests of the State. The response of the subsidiary - Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note (P) Limited (BRBNL) came after a RTI query sent to RBI under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to know the preparedness of the central bank to handle the cash crisis arising out of unexpected demonitisation move by Modi government.

In its response to RTI query, BRBNL has said that the information cannot be disclosed citing section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act. The section allows declining information disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence. The RBI Press did not give any reasons to justify as to how giving plain data about currency printed by it before November 8 would qualify in any of the categories given under Section 8(1)(a) to deny the information.

Ironically, the RBI in a separate response had said that it had 2,473 million pieces of 2,000 rupee notes on November 8 which had a value of over Rs 4.94 lakh crore. The RBI has not been forthcoming with information about currency situation in the country and its preparedness in the wake of demonetisation citing one exemption or the other.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8659.15, up by 56.40 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 8606.90 and 8672.70. There were 36 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 3.64%, ICICI Bank up by 3.17%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.81%, Axis Bank up by 2.57% and GAIL India up by 2.32%. On the flip side, Bosch down by 2.50%, Wipro down by 1.36%, Lupin down by 1.29%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.07% and Tata Motors down by 0.96% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 13.39 points or 0.06% to 23,360.78, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 5.86 points or 0.35% to 1,686.36 and Jakarta Composite declined 5.17 points or 0.1% to 5,312.47. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 increased 65.01 points or 0.34% to 19,467.40.