Benchmarks trade with modest gains in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks have made a positive start and are trading marginally in green in early deals on Thursday, as traders took some encouragement with report that India’s exports continued to grow for the fifth straight month, expanding by 4.32 percent to $ 22.11 billion in January against $ 21.19 billion in the same month of 2016. Imports also rose, by 10.70 percent to $ 31.95 billion, during the month under review.

On the global front, most of the Asian counters were trading in red at this point of time, led by Japanese market as the yen jumped and the dollar slipped against most major currencies. The US markets moved further high in last session extending the upward trend seen in recent sessions, following the release of a slew of economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing stronger than expected retail sales growth.

Back home, stocks related to oil & gas sector remained in focus, as the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs approved the award of 31 contract areas under the Discovered Small Field (DSF) Bid Round 2016. The government expects to monetise 40 million tonnes of oil and 22 billion cubic metres (BCM) of gas reserves over 15 years through the awarding of contracts. The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong, with 1,038 shares gaining and 922 shares declining, while a total of 93 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28178.69, up by 23.13 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 28146.19 and 28264.67. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.15%, while Small cap index was up by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.43%, Realty up by 1.15%, TECK up by 1.01%, Consumer Durables up by 0.40% and Auto was up by 0.34%, while FMCG down by 0.62%, Capital Goods down by 0.45%, Bankex down by 0.23% and Metal was down by 0.17% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.04%, TCS up by 1.76%, Infosys up by 1.60%, SBI up by 1.38% and Tata Motors was up by 1.05%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.96%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.75%, Adani Ports down by 1.56%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.32% and ITC was down by 1.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to put as many as 280 mines with a mineral wealth of over Rs 10 lakh crore to auction in the next fiscal. As many as 21 mining leases have already been auctioned so far with a cumulative resource value of around Rs 94,000 crore. The Mines Ministry has already facilitated the auction process extending support from IBM and Geological Survey of India (GSI), and various PSUs such as MSTC, MECON, MECL and SBICAP. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha are among the states preparing for the auction of mineral blocks like iron ore, bauxite and limestone in the next financial year. The blocks to be available for auction are under the New Exploration Policy.

Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar has said that there are 83 mines under litigation and auction of these mines depends upon the outcome of the legal process. He also said that drone technology will be used for monitoring of mining in any area and IBM will start this. This will help in preparing topography maps in few hours, which takes many days manually.

Kumar further said that ‘Drones will also save the time consumed in manual inspection. We can also verify the claims of the industry. For instance, they are saying that they have mined 10 lakh tonnes of mineral. We would be able to know about the exact quantity in one hour using a drone. This will be used for new as well as old mines.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8727.70, up by 3.00 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 8719.60 and 8751.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.00%, Infosys up by 1.75%, TCS up by 1.63%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.54% and SBI was up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 2.05%, ICICI Bank down by 2.01%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.86%, BPCL down by 1.48% and Adani Ports was down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 110.48 points or 0.57% to 19,327.50, Taiwan Weighted shed 35.28 points or 0.36% to 9,764.48, KOSPI Index fell 3.36 points or 0.16% to 2,080.50, Jakarta Composite slipped 3.02 points or 0.06% to 5,377.65 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 2.64 points or 0.15% to 1,707.15.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 6.24 points or 0.19% to 3,219.22 and Hang Seng was up by 97.39 points or 0.41% to 24,092.26.