Markets hover near highest point of the day

Indian equity benchmarks entered into positive territory in late afternoon session and were hovering near highest point of the day, on the back of healthy buying in Consumer Durables, TECK and IT stocks. Sentiments remained optimistic with private report that India is expected to clock GDP growth of 7.1 per cent in 2017-18 as the country gets sufficiently remonetised and the schemes in the Budget play a supportive role. Some support also came with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that slowdown in economic activity on account of demonetisation was only temporary and its effect would not spill over to the next financial year. He also said that the move has a strong potential to generate long term benefits in terms of reduced corruption, greater digitisation of economy, increased flow of financial savings and greater formalisation of economy.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red as investors eyed corporate earnings and waited for the latest economic assessments of the Bank of England. Asian markets were trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Godrej Properties gained traction after the company reported around three-fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 77.26 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, as compared to Rs 27.06 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28179.45, up by 37.81 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 28070.81 and 28220.59. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.79%, while Small cap index was up by 0.95%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.87%, TECK up by 1.33%, IT up by 1.27%, PSU up by 1.08% and FMCG up by 0.91%, while Auto down by 1.05%, Metal down by 0.66% and Capital Goods down by 0.48% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 3.44%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.71%, ITC up by 2.24%, Infosys up by 1.96% and Axis Bank up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.66%, Tata Motors down by 2.34%, HDFC down by 1.62%, GAIL India down by 1.55% and Tata Steel down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in the Union Budget 2017-2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced that government will be introducing a new and restructured central scheme, namely, Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES) to boost export infrastructure. It will give relief to Indian exporters who are facing huge challenges due to inadequate infrastructure which pushes their transactions costs, impacting competitiveness of Indian goods in the global markets.

The new scheme, TIES will come into operation from the next financial year, 2017-18 and will replace a similar initiative called ASIDE (Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development of Exports) which was discontinued by the centre in 2015-16, when states’ share in net proceeds of union tax revenues was increased to 42% from 32%, in line with the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendations.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said that the scheme will help in modernising infrastructure in states for exporters like last mile connectivity to ports, testing labs and certification centres.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8725.20, up by 8.80 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 8685.80 and 8735.60. There were 24 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 3.63%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 3.25%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.72%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.63% and ITC up by 2.34%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.10%, Hindalco down by 2.87%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.60%, Tata Motors down by 2.38% and ACC down by 2.22% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 233.5 points or 1.22% to 18,914.58, Hang Seng decreased 133.87 points or 0.57% to 23,184.52, Taiwan Weighted decreased 18.98 points or 0.2% to 9,428.97 and KOSPI Index decreased 9.47 points or 0.46% to 2,071.01. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 4.92 points or 0.29% to 1,676.46 and Jakarta Composite increased 9.97 points or 0.19% to 5,337.13.

European markets were trading mostly in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 18.94 points or 0.16% to 11,640.56 and France’s CAC decreased 2.15 points or 0.04% to 4,792.43. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 6.48 points or 0.09% to 7,114.13.