Markets hover near highest point of the day

Indian equity benchmarks continued their momentum to trade near highest point of the day in late afternoon session as broadly positive global indices and a strong rupee buoyed investors' sentiments. Sentiments also remained optimistic with the report that GST Council on Saturday approved a law to compensate states for any loss of revenue from the implementation of the new national sales tax but deferred approval for enabling laws to the next meeting. The council will meet again on March 4 and 5 to approve the legally vetted draft of the supporting legislations for Central GST (C-GST) and Integrated GST (I- GST), days before the start of the second leg of the Budget Session. Besides, investors opted for bargain-hunting as well as short-covering ahead of derivatives expiry this week. On sectoral front, buying was witnessed in most of the steel sector stocks with Care Ratings report that the country's steel production and consumption is likely to remain higher in 2017-18 from 89.79 MT of crude steel during 2015-16 backed by an increase in infrastructure allocation in the Budget. It said the National Steel Policy 2017, released by the government, also aims to increase steel production.

On global front, European markets were trading in green as investors eyed earnings and fresh economic data, as well as monitoring for any more details from President Donald Trump on his economic policies. Asian markets were trading mostly in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Tata Steel traded higher on exploring possibility of entering overseas markets like Bangladesh and Myanmar with retail branded steel solution products. The company is taking this step boosted with success of its solution business in the retail segment in the domestic market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28596.43, up by 127.68 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 28419.27 and 28652.91. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.67%, while Small cap index was up by 0.78%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.24%, Basic Materials up by 1.40%, Telecom up by 1.40%, Realty up by 1.36% and Utilities up by 1.24%, while there were no losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.10%, GAIL India up by 2.54%, Asian Paints up by 1.88%, TCS up by 1.81% and Power Grid up by 1.78%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.85%, ITC down by 0.75%, HDFC down by 0.65%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.37% and Reliance Industries down by 0.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s coal imports fell in January by 21.7 per cent to 14.31 million tonnes (MT) against 18.28 MT in the same month last year, on the back of sufficient availability of fuel with the power utilities.

As per mjunction services, an online procurement and sales platform floated jointly by SAIL and Tata Steel, coal imports were lower in January because in power sector, the state utilities are replete with stock and are aiming to curb imports altogether (except for coast-based plants) by March 2017. Besides, there was decrease in non-coking coal imports in January 2017 compared to December 2016 since non-power sector consumers stopped restocking the material after steam coal prices reversed its declining trend midway through January.

Earlier, in September 2016, the government had said that it was working on a plan to end dependency on coal imports in next 3-4 months in order to facilitate consumption of the surplus fossil fuel produced by Coal India (CIL). In 2015-16, CIL which accounts for over 80% of domestic output, achieved a record production of 536 MT, which was 42 MT more than the previous fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8857.65, up by 35.95 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 8809.80 and 8863.95. There were 37 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.12%, Idea Cellular up by 3.35%, GAIL India up by 2.45%, BPCL up by 2.36% and Asian Paints up by 1.87%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.84%, ITC down by 0.80%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.76%, HDFC down by 0.75% and Yes Bank down by 0.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 3.81 points or 0.18% to 2,084.39, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.13 points or 0.3% to 1,712.81, Jakarta Composite increased 6.34 points or 0.12% to 5,357.27, Nikkei 225 increased 16.46 points or 0.09% to 19,251.08, Shanghai Composite increased 37.89 points or 1.18% to 3,239.96 and Hang Seng increased 112.34 points or 0.47% to 24,146.08. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 26.72 points or 0.27% to 9,753.20.

All European markets were trading in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 12.45 points or 0.17% to 7,312.41, France’s CAC increased 28.94 points or 0.59% to 4,896.52 and Germany’s DAX increased 78.54 points or 0.67% to 11,835.56.